I'll Get to it Tomorrow...

The Longest Weekend Ever

2012-01-30T16:08:00.003-06:00

This weekend has felt like an entire month, even though it was only three days.
I spent the whole thing in my apartment laying on my couch watching movie after movie after movie. And the SAG awards.

For the first time since childhood, I have the stomach flu. College is such a cesspool.
It is just as awful as I remember it, except this time I had to go it alone.
No parents at my disposal to get me things. I had to get off my sick butt to get ginger ale and saltine crackers and gatorade and pepto.
Being an adult sucks haha, but I'm glad I don't have roommates because it would have just grossed them the heck out all weekend. Better off no one had to share in it.

Had solid food for the first time yesterday, rather unsuccessfully, but tried again today. Seems to be going well so far. Yay for small accomplishments. Unfortunately, though, this means I haven't gotten any real work done this weekend and that is a huge problem. I have so much work to do , especially for my GD studio it is unbelievable. Three projects going at once, no work done because I was too sick to deal with it. When we did portfolio reviews this week, mine did not go well at all. It makes me very nervous to graduate. I'm going to need to do a lot of extra work to even be at par on graduation. More than most other people in my class, it seems.

I'm going to do it, I have to, especially if I want a job at some point. I don't even know what I want to do yet. I know I'm not doing grad school right away, I'm going to get a job and work for a couple of years and then I might go on for a masters in art education, get certified to teach and all that. I know I can do that at NIU, so I could commute there and it wouldn't be too bad. But that's a ways off to think about. Its the immediate future I'm more worried about. What do I want to do? So much to think about... and not much time to think about it anymore! Eek! I'm a firm believer in whatever happens happens and that it will work out so... well, I'm sure it will work out!

For now, the more immediate concern is feeling better.. but damn do I hate Gatorade. Ugh.

Week 1 Roundup

2012-01-20T12:48:00.003-06:00

Its the beginning of the end, people.
For real this time.

I can sum up my first week of class in a few words: I'm a wimp.

I have class on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday which is awesome, but each of those days I had an 8am class. I don't like that. My 8am Tues/Thurs was an exercise class. I signed up thinking 'Ohh, great! Group fitness! I bet it'll be some yoga, some kickboxing...'

WRONG.

Its running and weight lifting. I don't mind weight lifting so much, but running I absolutely cannot do. Its pathetic to watch me run. On the second day of class the teacher (A former Korean pro-baseball player who barely speaks English and goes by 'Hank') made us run a mile. I felt like I was in high school, only less in shape. Needless to say it didn't go well. I did it, but it was pretty sad. I have since dropped the class. I'll figure out some other way to stay in shape haha.

GD is going to be crazy. I have so much work to do. Projects to revise/re-do, portfolios, new projects, all sorts of things blending together. I'm going to lose my mind for sure. Good thing I'm not in any other studio!

I Live With a Bunch of Grinches

2011-12-21T19:29:00.003-06:00

I usually love being home for break.
Christmas is always my favorite time of year.
Not so much this year.

Maybe I'm just cranky because there hasn't been any snow yet. I mean, what's a Christmas without snow? Weird, that's what! I don't like it one bit! I'm still holding out for a surprise snowstorm or something.

But I think it's more than that.
It's just depressing to be around the house this year.

Everyone is super cranky and/or sad and/or stressed. Name a negative emotion and it's probably hanging over my house. This is, of course, super frustrating when you're the only one with the Christmas spirit (and believe me, there isn't much left). I decorated the whole tree, 90% of the house, have made most of the cookies so far, and will probably have to make the rest on my own as well, and have wrapped all of the presents that aren't my own and will not be surprised if I have to wrap some of mine (and not peek) as well.

My mom and my brother fight like... every day.
He's always cranky anyway, it's like a chronic condition I swear.
Dad was super depressing the last two days (thank God he seems to be better now).

Tonight I finally had to escape upstairs to get away from it all.
Hopefully they won't find me or come looking for me until I have to go out with my friends who are all (FINALLY) home.

Those in the house will be lucky if I don't bite someone's head off in the next few days.
They are all seriously killing my Christmas buzz. Huge bummer.
I hate it when you're trying so hard to be in a good mood, but everyone else just has to bring you down. It's so tempting to go back to school early at this point. I don't know what I'm going to do after I graduate.

I sincerely hope that my brother moves out before I move in or I don't know if I can do it.

Someone give me some happy pills or something, I'm going to start putting them in everyone's food when they're not looking.

End of Semester

2011-12-05T15:00:00.003-06:00

This is a very easy end of the semester, for once!
I'm already done with my Graphic Design final which is due on Wednesday. My professor really likes it (so he says now...), so I'm really hoping I do well on it. He said, and I quote "You really rocked it out this time".

First time I've ever heard that.

I'm done with my photo project and just need to print it tomorrow and take a few photos of my GD project. That's easy.

Anthropology... I'm not too worried about the final. I'm a little worried about the grade. I got a little lazy mid semester and didn't go for awhile, but I did well on the Midterm and the other big test, so if I do my reading and watch the one movie I missed I should be ok. Less worried now.

The only other thing is a five page paper for Art History which really isn't a big deal. I need to do relatively well on it in order to get an A. I think I can, though. I've got like an 89.5 in the class and she's one of those professors that, if we made an effort and she can tell, will round up for us.

In other news I ran out of my headache medicine on Saturday and have had little headaches ever since. It's obnoxious, but it's not worth it for me to tell my parents and have them overnight a few pills. Furthermore, it's letting me try out some holistic methods I've been wondering about. Some work better than others, and they're not bad ones so I'll be fine for two more days.

I'm almost done! :)

Silly Thought

2011-12-04T21:43:00.002-06:00

So today when I went into my bathroom to take a shower, I had a funny thought.

When I was younger, I went to my Grandpa's house in Chicago.
I accidentally locked myself in the bathroom there. My Grandpa had told me not to lock the door because the lock was broken but I did it anyway.

Oh boy was he mad.
I remember sitting on the edge of the tub listening to him yell at me through the door (mostly, I realize now, because he was afraid he'd have to break the "damn door" down...)
I was terrified. He always scared me because he was so loud, but hey, I didn't listen that time.
It's funny, because I think if he was still alive today it would be totally different. I think we'd be a lot alike, especially from stories I hear now.

Anyway, the apartment I live in now is old, kind of reminds me of Grandpa's house. I have never, not even once, locked that bathroom door. The first day I was there, I found that the doorknob was kind of hard to turn. Every time I have trouble with it, I think about my Grandpa telling me not to lock the door. I won't do it. Can't.

I'm listening now, so that counts, right?

Also, I found this on Pinterest, thought I would share it. May have teared up a little. Why aren't there more people like Mr. Rogers out there?

Soooo Clooooose...

2011-11-16T00:31:00.002-06:00

It's almost Thanksgiving break!
I'm so excited!!

No, seriously, because I need to get the heck out of Champaign for awhile.
Too much school and too much work, ew. Luckily the only things I have left for this week are an annotated bibliography (ewwww) and a photo project both due Thursday. I can handle that, but it is quite a bit of work. Luckily I have a work day in studio tomorrow to do whatever, so I can do that.

Furthermore, I'm over not getting into that class. The more I look at it, the more I realize that I really need to be able to focus on my last senior studio. I have a lot of work to do to get my portfolio into any kind of shape for after graduation and that is a big undertaking.

Sounds like there's a fight going on outside my window right now. Love hearing drunk people. I feel like there have to be better things to do on a Tuesday night than to go out drinking or at least to get THAT drunk, you know? My favorite was two very drunk girls the other night who were arguing and the one goes "It's like you don't want me to be happy or something... Why can't you just let me be meeeee?" It was great until the other girl started yelling back and I thought I was going to have to dump water out my window to get them to move along.

Three more days of class then I can get out of here for a much needed break (sort of! because I still have lots of work to do!)!

Funk

2011-11-08T01:24:00.003-06:00

I've been in a funk for the past few days.
Not sure why, really, but I'm probably just PMSing. I just registered for my last semester of classes and registered for graduation and shit, as they say, is getting real.

There was one class I kind of wanted to take this year at some point because my adviser said she recommended it to all graphic design students. It's a competitive class so you have to apply to get into it. Well, I didn't get into it this semester, so I figured I'd try again in the spring. Next semester it is being taught by a professor I have now, so I figured since he knew me and my work I'd have a better chance of getting in. Just got the email that I didn't. Again.

It's not a class that I'm dying to take and I know that it isn't going to make or break me academically or professionally. I understand that. It just sucks. It makes me wonder what I did wrong, what is missing from my work. Did I not show enough variety? Was it just that unimpressive? Its kind of disconcerting and I don't know what to think. There are people that have gotten accepted into the class for multiple semesters, to take it again and here I can't even get into it once. Why? Of course, if you email these people the answer you'll get back is 'We just found that other candidates were better suited blah blah blah...' like it's a job interview or something. Ugh. I'm glad I don't have studio tomorrow because I know I couldn't go in there and face that professor and be nice. I mean, it's like he barely thought over the decision or already knew who he was going to accept. I got the response back within 4 days. At least the other professor thought about it all summer. This guy took 4 days. I find that hard to believe, especially with such a "large number of applicants".

Well, fuck him, now I'm going to take ice skating. Ha.

I'm not even sure if design is my thing anymore. Of course I'm going to graduate with my degree, I am. I just don't feel like I fit in in the design world. I don't want to work at a corporate office and small studios are so snobby and hipster. I might just work for a couple of years and then go back and get a teaching certification. Everyone loves elementary art, right? Then I can do what I want on the side, too. Sounds like a deal to me! That, however, is at least a little ways away and I don't have to think about it quite yet.

Summary:
- I hate this professor.
- I'm PMSing, GRRR.
- I get to take ice skating, so ha.

Internship

2011-06-21T11:10:00.003-05:00

SO.
I'm makin' money this summer.

Anyway, its going well so far. I'm in my third week and have pretty much gotten the hang of things. My boss says I'm getting better at designing things in their style. Their style is... old fashioned, to put it nicely. In this company, their chief buyer is a woman in her 40s-60s. Its a collectible company.

Most of the stuff I'm creating ads for are Thomas Kinkade things. Everything is Christmas in my division, so I'm working on ads for Christmas villages, trains, ornaments, and nativities. They're all pretty darn ugly except for some cute Disney princess things I did the other day. One of the marketers even said "If we think its hideous, we know it'll sell..." Whatever, its money and good experience and everyone here is really nice.

The office is cool too. Its like a big greenhouse, there are plants everywhere, palm trees (real ones!), bamboo, and waterfalls all over. Its unlike any other office I've been to. I have my own cubicle and its pretty darn big! Other than the commute, I don't really have many complaints.

But the commute does suck.

The second day I was going up there, my car died in the middle of rush hour on I294. I couldn't even pull off the side of the road. I put my hazards on, called 911 for the first time in my life, and then cried as a couple of nice Mexicans pushed my car to the shoulder for me. Thank God for them, seriously. The cop that pulled up behind me had a good sense of humor, so that helped. He was super nice. It was quite the ordeal, but what gets me is that they couldn't find anything wrong with my car, so now I'm paranoid about driving it. I've been driving my dad's car instead (the battery died on that yesterday, but at least it was Sunday).

Other than that, its been raining every damn day.
Which I guess is fine since I can't be outside to enjoy it anyway.

--

As a random, final thought for now, whenever a friend of mine posts a surprising status on Facebook, or really anything that calls for it... I'm going to post a link to this video in lieu of a comment:

God, I love TBBT. <3

Tuesday Blues

2011-06-01T00:38:00.002-05:00

Well, not really blues.
Just in the morning, I guess.

Today, I had to get a mole removed. There was nothing wrong with it other than the fact that it was huge and right on my bra line so it rubbed on everything. I've been wanting to get rid of it for awhile.

Only problem is that I'm terrified of any sort of medical procedure involving needles or scalpels or anything that could potentially hurt. I was a mess all morning. I woke up a few hours before the appointment and felt like I was going to puke all the way through the end of the appointment. I was almost hyperventilating in the room, it was awful as nearly all trips to the doctor are for me haha.

Of course, the procedure itself took like a minute and other than the initial needle stick to numb me, it was completely painless. I'm just a huge baby. It also helped that I was distracted by a GIANT SPIDER in the room. I have never seen a spider that large, at least not indoors. It was big, black, and looked like it wanted to eat my face off. I pointed it out to the dermatologist, she freaked out too and went to get someone to kill it for us.

So, all in all, I'm glad its over, glad its gone, and know that I am a huge wuss.

It didn't hurt then, but it sure does now! Thank goodness there's vicodin in the house. Mom gave me half of one and soon I'll be nice and drowsy and forgetting that there's a big ol' hole in my back haha.

Also, I should hear about my internship soon. Cross your fingers! :)

Raccoons are Terrifying

2011-05-21T12:07:00.002-05:00

I have to say, not much has been going on in my life as of late.

The internship search has hit a sort of dead end. I got a call back from a company I had a phone interview with and its sounding good but I'm not holding my breath. It doesn't help that my mother bugs me about it every. single. day. I mean, I know she's just trying to be helpful but it gets annoying after so long, haha. I really am trying my hardest to find one. I sure as heck don't want to work at Walgreen's again.

I will if I have to, but I'd rather not. I actually started sewing again and am thinking of starting up an Etsy shop to avoid having to work at Walgreen's if all my internships fall through. I've been making little zipper bags, like make-up bags and pencil pouches. They're really cute. I've started attempting to make dog toys too and next on my list is baby bibs. I've also been making magnets out of old buttons, they're super cute. So I'm hoping that maybe I can make some money off of that instead of working at the good ol' Wal. Hey, I could put going into business for myself on my resume, right? Ha.

I'm currently down in Champaign for the weekend, initiating another group of pledges for APX. Its been fun, actually. Theres like no one else in the area since all the students have left and I went out to the bars last night with Sean and Kyle and they were totally deserted. It was so cool, I wish they were always like that. Its also super weird to not be in my apartment anymore. I'm staying there while I'm down here, but I'm sleeping on the couch which is weird when what used to be my bedroom is like twenty feet away haha.

Anyway, interesting story: Yesterday, I was attacked by a raccoon. No joke. I was outside with a big group of people, just minding my own business. It was still light out at the time so it was weird to see a raccoon anyway. I saw it prowling around on the roof of the house next door and didn't think anything of it until it came bounding around the corner and charged into the crowd. They scared it off for a second and then it came right back and right at me. I screamed louder than I've screamed in a long, long time. It ran right between my legs and around me and I kinda-sorta kicked it (to get it away from my legs!) and it ran off again.

I wasn't bitten and it seems now that I wasn't scratched either (I thought I was but looking at it today, theres no evidence of a scratch). I was seriously scared that I was going to have to get rabies shots! Looks like I won't though, luckily. I'm thinking it had a nest nearby so it was probably defending its babies, but we had no idea there was a nest anywhere. I still don't see one but I'm not about to go and investigate. I might call animal control, though, and see about relocating them. Its kinda dangerous when you think about it. Wish I'd brought the dog with me to initiation! He would have scared that thing off before it even got to us!

Intense Weekend

2011-04-18T17:45:00.002-05:00

Its been an intense weekend, to say the least.

It was formal this weekend, probably my last APX formal even though I'm not graduating. More because I'm a senior anyway and I don't know that I'll want to go next year.

I have to say, I haven't been that drunk in a long time. It was a good night, my dress was cute and everyone was having fun. I went back to the hotel around 11:30 and after that I totally blacked out. I woke up on the bathroom floor, presumably after puking. I guess I had actually been in bed before that but I didn't learn of the rest of my exploits until later that day.

Apparently I made out with one of my good friends. Yeah. Two described it as "hard core making out" which embarrassed me a great deal. I have absolutely no memory of this at all. None. I felt so guilty about it because its not like I really have a thing for this guy or anything. I think it was the culmination of booze and the fact that I hadn't made out with a guy in a long time so it just happened. He didn't remember it either, but apparently after being told he started to remember some of it. He said I was saying weird things and I told him not to even tell me what I said. We agreed that it was no harm done, at least we were having fun. Furthermore, I'm a little more pissed that there were like 10+ people in the room watching us but not doing anything. Oh well, at least we didn't have sex, right?

If that's one of the worst things I do in college, then I'm doing far better than most people. I just hate it when I don't remember things. I expect things to be a little awkward this week despite that we both apologized and agreed that it was fine and that we were still friends, but after that I'm sure things will go back to normal.

Apparently I also peed in a bathtub. I guess I went into the bathroom to pee, somehow missed, fell into the bathtub (I have a huge bruise on my leg as proof) and decided that since I wasn't going to make it out of the bathtub in time, I would just pee there. I suppose that's not as bad as some things I could have done in there. I've seen people barf in tubs and I rinsed it out later. All I can say is that I'm quite classy, huh? I had the worst hangover like all day the next day and I definitely almost puked on the train on the way home.

Shit happens, right? That's about all I can chalk this up to.

I also went to my Grandma's house on Sunday to take a few things I wanted before they do the estate sale. I don't know how much I want to talk about that because it was really kind of depressing. I cried a little in the car on the way home, but didn't tell my mom that. Its hard to have been in that house for the last time. Also, it was a memorable last visit because I found a giant centipede and totally freaked out about it.

Anyway, yeah. Glad the weekend is over. Looking forward to finishing up these last few weeks of school and getting the heck out of Champaign for the summer. Hopefully I'll end up with an internship. Cross your fingers!

Annoyed

2011-03-06T00:13:00.002-06:00

Don't you hate it when you're just irritable for no reason?
I've been like that all day today.

Of course, not wanting to be a total recluse for the day I went out to dinner with some people and watched a movie. They're still here hanging with my roommates but I am in my room. I don't want to be out there with everyone when all I want to do is slap them haha. I'm one of those people that needs regular breaks from other people. I like to go and hang out with people and have fun but then come back, relax, and re-center myself.

Its also annoying when they lean over mid-movie and ask you if you have eggs so they can make a mess making cookies in your kitchen.

Guest: Do you have eggs? I want to make cookies...
Me: You're not using my kitchen.
Guest: Whyyyy? *whine*
Me: Because you'll make a mess and leave it there. No.

Thankfully I seem to have won that argument. And the same person asked if they could use our coffeemaker no more than twenty minutes later. Luckily, no one in the apartment drinks coffee so we don't have one.

Its not that I don't want people to have fun when they're over, I just hate cleaning up their messes and furthermore when I'm already super irritable and PMS-ing, I don't want to deal with that. Maybe I'm just being a bitch tonight, but everyone deserves one night like that, right?

Squish

2011-02-10T16:16:00.002-06:00

Note to Self: Never complain to your 3 large male roommates that you are cold. They will either sit on you or get into bed with you.

I made this mistake the other night and all three of them hopped onto my bed. Now it smells like boy.

Also, I informed them about my desire to write a book about my year with them and they are actually quite excited about it. They want to pick out their own names for the book rather than me referring to them by their real names. Not that they are afraid of being called out by first name in my book, but they think it would be cool.

Now I'm afraid they're going to purposely do obnoxious things in the attempt to get it into my book. Ohhhh boy.

The Blueberry Waffle Hole

2011-01-26T21:29:00.002-06:00

Every day I live in this apartment, I become more and more convinced that I need to write a book.
Honestly, my life is ridiculous.

Last night, our revenge on one roommate got the best of us. See, he put all this food in the freezer last semester and forgot about it. Never touched it. So.... Sean moved it into the freezers of our mini-fridges (ie - beer fridges). Now, those freezers don't work very well and Sean opened the mini fridge.

The smell was overwhelming.
Unbelievable.
It was -2 outside but we still opened the sliding glass door to air the place out. It was like a bomb went off. A horrible, rancid blueberry waffle bomb.

After that fiasco, we decided to watch a movie. Since we're all mature adults, we watched Cars. About halfway through the movie, Sean gets up and here is the conversation.

Me: Where are you going?
Sean: Gonna go fart in the laundry rooom.
Me: No, don't. I have clothes in there.
Sean: Doorway?
Me: Ughhhhh....
Sean: What? At least I have the decency to do it somewhere else!

Aaaand then giggles ensued. These are the types of conversations I have come to expect. I could write an entire chapter of a book alone on farting or the blueberry waffle hole. I wonder if anyone would read it...?

Goodnight everyone and remember: Have a heart, don't fart.

Homework Sometimes Makes me Think.

2010-11-10T22:37:00.003-06:00

I've just finished reading a couple of articles on sustainability and current product design and I have to say, we're screwed. We're all going to get cancer and the Earth is going to heat up to a billion degrees and melt us all someday.

Its unbelievable the types of things that go into everyday items that we don't even think about. Your shoes release carcinogens into the air every time you take a step. Did you know that?

Sitting on the couch is dangerous.
Drinking out of a bottle can put all sorts of toxins in your system.
The things we eat will give us cancer.

Its so easy to become resigned to this fact.
Businesses have, that's why they continue to produce products with all this crap in them. They don't care as long as they make money. At least they can afford their cancer treatment that they'll inevitably need someday.

Why is it that when you purchase something you have to fight to get it out of the package? Why do we need such a large bottle for twenty pills? And why does that bottle need to be in a padded box three times its size?

How did we become this way?
It all seems so selfish.

"Currently, more money is being spent on breast implants and Viagra than on Alzheimer's research. So, in the very near future there should be a large elderly population with impressive breasts and magnificent erections, but no recollection of what to do with them"
- Sally Feldman

That is so funny and yet so depressing all at once.

There's Nothing Like a Due Date.

2010-11-09T12:59:00.003-06:00

Seriously.
I love days when things are due because you always feel so good afterwords (unless your project is torn to ribbons).

My iphone app is done.
It got good reviews.
I have nothing due for tomorrow.

I don't know what to do with myself!!

I'm going to watch a movie, crochet something cute, and sit on my butt.
Sounds wonderful! Simple things are the best sometimes.
The weather is perfect too which is awesome (though it gets dark far too early)!

Thanksgiving break is just a week and a half away and I cannot wait.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and a week at home sounds heavenly.

Oh hey, I have a blog... I almost forgot.

2010-11-03T13:54:00.003-05:00

Its a good thing I remember about this thing when I'm about to start class. God forbid I'd actually pay attention for once.

Anyway.

I like to call my life right now "Adventures in Boyland" because living with guys has just been one funny/gross experience after another. I swear they have no common sense. Example?

Me: Bill, why did you put your grapes and banana in a box instead of in the garbage?
Bill: The garbage was overflowing.
Me: So.... you didn't think taking the trash out would be a good idea?
Bill: Well.. I figured we'd get to that in like an hour or something.
Me: Right. So.. its been like this for days? No wonder our apartment smells.
Bill: Yeah...

Bananas, grapes, and dryer lint are not recyclable. Just sayin'.

Also, I want to start a shop on Etsy.
I need money.

I just need to figure out what to make and sell. So far I'm thinking about designing aprons. Also, I'm learning to crochet those adorable little dolls. I crocheted a pumpkin the other day, I'll put a pic up later.

Gay Drama, as promised.

2010-08-14T01:31:00.002-05:00

I promised Erin the other night while out drinking with one of my gay friends that I would relay the fascinating world of gay drama via blog.

So. My gay.
He's 21, same as me and listening to him talk about his love life makes me feel so normal.

He's still in love with the first guy he was with when he came out a couple of years ago. This guy, by the way, is a total d-bag but you can be sure a night out with my friend will yield a whiny conversation or sly reference to his first boyfriend.

After him it was some casual sex and then a relationship with someone more than twice his age. I believe he was 19 or 20 at the time, and his boyfriend was 47. Not only that, but I like to refer to this relationship as "the time when he was a kept man" because really all he did was have sex with the guy and get bought presents and get to live in his nice apartment in the city. This guy had fathered a child for a lesbian couple and this child was also in his life so my friend was a kept man/babysitter.

Anyway, my friend was also cheating on this guy with someone else and I'm pretty sure this boyfriend was cheating on him too. Either way they eventually broke up for one reason or another. I didn't want to open up that can of worms.

Oh, and did I mention that this guy died like... a few weeks ago? So now its really like a soap opera.

Fast forward to more casual sex probably.

And now the current boyfriend whom I am assured is under 40 but I am pretty sure he's pushing it. He is described as my friend's best friend in the world... that he has no romantic interest in but continues to have a relationship/sex with because he doesn't want to hurt him.

Gay drama makes my head spin.
But its fascinating.
And I love my gay :)

I crack myself up.

2010-08-10T00:47:00.002-05:00

Fun story.

So today I'm going through these file folders in my closet full of school work I did in preschool and elementary school. Why my mom kept all this crap, I don't know but it was seriously entertaining to look through. I was such a weird little kid.

Example 1: I had a worksheet in preschool that said "If I met a magic fish I would ask for ________." We must have read a story about a magic fish. Anyway. My answer? "Fountain Mermaid Barbie".

Example 2: "If I were a Penguin I would _________." My answer: "Watch out for seals and killer whales." As if I knew that killer whales ate penguins when I was 4, haha!

Example 3: My personal favorite here. I had to put my family members on a sheet of paper. Well, I had no pictures of them so naturally I used a magazine. The picture I used for my dad looks like some douchebag gigolo in a hawaiian shirt. I labeled it "Daddy". The one I used for mom is labeled "Mommy" and looks like a normal human being. Mike's? It's fondly labeled "Baby brother Mike. He's not really a baby, he's 8." I can only imagine what a kick my teacher got out of it. But the picture I used for Mike? A little black baby, afro and all. HA.

I wish I could go back in time and have a conversation with my 4 year old self. I imagine it would be hilarious because clearly I was a funny kid.

Thought of the Day.

2010-05-31T23:01:00.003-05:00

Here's today's thought.

I hate the number 89.
Just try to say it fast three times and you'll see why.

It's a wretched number that makes my job difficult.
39 sucks too.
Not as much, though.

Odd but true.

Zen Thought of the Day

2010-05-29T22:27:00.002-05:00

For those of you who have ever worked in retail.

Someone gets in your line and buys condoms. When you're done you tell them to "Have a nice day!". . .

What do you think goes through their minds?

A.) Why yes, yes I will *eyebrow wiggle*
B.) Huh, what a nice salesperson.
C.) I'm hungry.

Meditate on that.

Gleek Shout Out

2010-05-20T01:56:00.002-05:00

So.
After Glee last night I feel the need to say that I'm pretty sure Kevin McHale (Artie) is the love of my life. Just sayin'.

Probably because of this. I can't stop listening to it.
I mean, I love the original version by Mama Cass Elliot but his voice in this one just knocks me out.
Oh, to be in love... haha. (Oh how I shall pine in vain... :P)

Holy Update, Batman!

2010-05-18T21:36:00.002-05:00

Summer is here! I want to shout it from the rooftops!
But since its hella cold, I'll just be doing that from the comfort of my couch.

Seriously, Illinois. Get the memo. Its May!

Speaking of, just one month till my 21st birthday!! Not sure what I'm going to do for it yet, but whatever. I'm thinking of having it in Champaign. Getting a hotel room or two for people to stay in. I mean, there are some people with apartments down there that could maybe let people stay there. Hopefully? I'm just thinking Champaign because then all my 20 year old friends could get into the bars/drink illegally with less worry than up here.

Starting work at the good ol' Walgreen's again tomorrow. They've got so many hours for me it hurts. I think I'm going to have to pick and choose. Some lady that works full time is having surgery so they're giving me her hours and while I'm glad, I don't feel like working 6 10-hour days a week. I still want a summer, ya know?

Sadly, though, most of my friends are gone. Moved away. I just learned of another one that recently moved to Florida. Then one is in Ohio, another in Wisconsin, Colorado, Wyoming, Boston... and all over the Illinois/St. Louis area. Those are a little easier to see.

So, hopefully I'll be spending a relaxing summer with art, diy projects, a garage sale and work. Hopefully a vacation of some sort and whatever time I can spend with friends. Oh and the dog. Him too, I suppose haha.

(Drunk) Musings.

2010-04-11T01:45:00.003-05:00

So...
I haven't drank for two days in quite a long time.
But the good news is neither night (ie - last night and tonight) was out of control.

I didn't black out last night or have a hangover.
Same with tonight. I mean, I'm still drunk fo sho, but not terribly.
Just comfortably.

Lately I've begun to have doubts about my major again. I don't know if graphic design is right for me. I just don't seem to fit in with my peers. They're all so... political? Opinionated? Hipsters? I don't know. I'm none of those things. I'm an apathetic frat rat.

I hate politics. Hate hate hate. I want everyone to get along. I don't identify with a political party. I'm a realist. I don't like to run around preaching my ideals and it bothers me when others do (when they're forceful about it. if its a discussion I don't mind so much) but that's just how everything is. I mean, everything I do is expected to have meaning. To have a reason. I do things because I think that they're aesthetically pleasing. I like nice looking things and that's that. I put colors together because I like them, not because of how they make you react.

Does that make me unfit to be a serious designer? I mean, I kind of just want to do magazine layouts or hallmark cards. Something that doesn't require everything I do to be so in depth. I don't know. I keep thinking about switching to an advertising major. I could still finish in five years if I did. At the same time, I'm so unsure. I have so many doubts about both. What if I changed and was just miserable in advertising? I don't have the money to be in school for more than five years. My dad said he'd pay for five years and after that I was on my own and I absolutely understand that. I don't think I'd want to be dicking around in school for that long anyway.

Whatever.
I've had quite a bit to drink.
I've had toooo many cigarettes tonight (I'm stressed).

But I think I'll stick with it.
I need to experience it with a different professor.
We'll see. Positivity. Or at least the promise of turning 21 soon and a trip to Mexico with my ladies if we can plan it. And maybe a trip to Vegas with the parents? Perhaps?

Whatevs.
Love y'all.
Goodnight.

Bad Life Choice.

2010-03-10T22:39:00.003-06:00

Just looked in my refrigerator and realized... just how bad the contents really are.

In my fridge currently: Beer (which holds the majority here), string cheese, one cup of yogurt (probably expired), and a small bottle of strawberry lemonade. :/

This does not bode well for me.

My freezer contents are dismal too.
A small frozen pizza, an individual frozen lasagna, and a lean cuisine. (The lean cuisine makes me feel .5% better about myself)

I'm also hungry.
But the only other food I have besides what's in my fridge is chocolate, a box of rice chex, and some stale tostitos.

Rice chex it is!

I need to go shopping.

Design Overload

2010-03-07T17:50:00.004-06:00

These next two weeks are going to be INSANE.
I mean, its absolutely crazy how much I have to get done before break, but the fact that break is at the end of the two weeks is literally the only thing keeping me going right now.

Unofficial was fun. I think the fact that I wasn't a drunk mess this year was great. Last year I was insane, but this year was more low key, which is great. I got up at 8am to start drinking which in itself is RIDICULOUS. I'd had 3 beers before 11am, which is one an hour which isn't too bad. I took a nap for an hour to sober up so I could go to the art building and pick up a camera for my homework and get some lunch.

Then I went back and proceeded to start drinking again, just beer. I spent the entire afternoon outside in the gorgeous weather. It was 45 degrees and sunny which is great no-coat basking in the sun weather when its been cloudy/snowy and 20 degrees for months. So I was outside for a good 4-5 hours drinking beer, then wine, then some shots of cheap whiskey which was gross but kept me warm and allowed me to stay outside longer.

Then I took another like... hour long nap while people were watching a zombie movie downstairs. I hate zombie movies even if they're supposed to be funny. I just think they're gross and creepy so I napped and sobered up again and then had a few more beers, played guitar hero for an hour or so with the boys and then went to bed.

Yesterday I just relaxed, watched disney movies on TV and hung out around the house and today is the day for homework to get done. I've got quiiiite a bit to do, but I figure I can just relax, watch the oscars, and work on it.

SO, until spring break, my life looks like this:

- Italian paper rewrite
- Research memorandum
- Initial packaging design for CD
- Playlist for CD
- Order custom USB drives for CD
- Form Studies (x a millionnnnn)
- Photo midterm portfolio
- Design history midterm project

Nature's Revenge

2010-02-28T15:47:00.001-06:00

So...
I shouldn't have called Old Man Winter out like that in my last post.

Because I just had to kill a wasp in my room.
In February.

That is not my idea of spring.
That is karma biting me in the ass.

(But still, fuck winter. And wasps.)

One More Thing...

2010-02-28T00:36:00.001-06:00

I believe this sums up how I feel.
Is it spring yet?

Straight Guys Love Disney: Fact.

2010-02-28T00:22:00.003-06:00

I may or may not have experienced one of the most hilarious things in the world last night.
I get a text message from one of the guys I live with and all it says is "Lion King"

And I'm confused. What about it?
Well he and three other guys were about to watch it downstairs and I guess I'm special enough to get this prestigious invite.

Now, I love me some Lion King so I hauled it down two flights of stairs.
Just in time to hear the loudest rendition of Circle of Life I had ever heard.
By four straight guys.
I couldn't even sing along with them I was laughing so hard. They knew all the words to every song and were even enraged when they found out that the movie was a special edition and that there were a couple of extra songs in there that just didn't belong.

It was probably the gayest thing I've ever seen, but it was hysterical.
Luckily I was able to hold it together to sing along to the rest of it with them. I believe our next Disney movie night will be the old animated Alice in Wonderland before we all inevitably go out together to see the new Tim Burton movie.

Also, I got them to admit that no animated Disney movies are chick flicks. They have the same love for The Little Mermaid that they have for Lion King. According to them, Disney princesses or no, its all good.

You all heard it.
Document it and tell your man.
And then sit yourself down with some good Disney movies.

Haus.

2010-02-12T01:45:00.003-06:00

So, I finally got myself a new laptop.

My old one is in getting fixed right now (under warranty/fo' free) for the same part that has crapped out on me for the 3rd time already.
I'll use that one as back-up when its done getting fixed, but I decided that since I had money saved it would be better for me to have a laptop that I could rely on.

You know, one that can run more than one application at once and doesn't take 20 minutes to tell my printer to print a 3 page paper.

I looove it. Its a 13" macbook pro.
Of course, I'm still kind of reeling from all the money I spent.
Ughhhh.

So anyway.
Since I'm awake and bored I've decided to list all the current problems with the house that I live in. Enjoy. I sure do.

1. One toilet in the girl's bathroom won't flush. The chain is broken.
2. The other toilet in the girl's bathroom leaks (from the tank, thank god).
3. One of the showers in the girl's bathroom won't drain properly, so it's like taking a shower ankle-deep in shower water.
4. One of the sinks in the girl's bathroom doesn't have hot water. Another doesn't have cold. One... actually has both.
5. You can't run more than one washer at once down in the laundry room or the whole thing floods. This has happened 3 times in the past two days. (but it smells good)
6. There are still squirrels in my ceiling.
7. One is dead and smells. (though I feel that it must be "drying up" because I don't notice it as much anymore. Part of that could also be my glade plug in that is on full blast)
8. All the windows in the house are so old that they let a ton of cold air in. (if its windy and my window is closed, my curtains will still blow)
9. Because of #8 my room feels like Antarctica.
10. The kitchen smells and the refrigerator has broken twice this year. Still waiting for the first breakdown of the semester.
11. We need a new roof. Badly.
12. I'd like some insulation above my room so that my ceiling doesn't radiate cold and squirrels don't get into it and die and smell making it radiate cold and dead animal smell.
13. The floors creak. Everywhere. I can hear EVERY MOVE MADE IN THIS HOUSE all the time. So can everyone else.
14. My room looks like a bomb went off in it (that, however, is my own fault >:( ... )
15. There are actually two working toilets in the guy's bathroom... with no divider in between them so if two have to go at once, they have to watch each other poop. (this doesn't really concern me, but I find it kind of funny... that wording there is theirs, not mine! ew.)

And those are just a few. There are more. Lots of loose/cracked windows... blahblahblah. 3 more months and I'm outta this hole and into an apartment again in the fall, thank god. This is why I'm glad I have a car down here and Fridays off. If shit gets unbearable as it sometimes does, I can get out of here for a few days.

Still love the housemates.
Just hate the house.

And can't demolish it/remodel it 'cause its on the National Historic Register.
Damnit.

Figuring it Out

2010-01-20T11:23:00.003-06:00

I think I've got my plans figured out.
And boy does it feel good.

I think I'm saving Italy for next summer. I'll either be studying abroad in Verona for 6 weeks or taking the country by storm with my cousin for 6 weeks. I'm going to keep my options open. If my cousin has her plans like... super duper concrete, then I'll go with her and just have fun. If not, then I'll be going anyway. I like the sound of this.

So this summer... I'll be internship hunting whether its paid or not. I still have Walgreens for money if I need it an if I can't find an internship I'll find a second job. I'll start applying for internships immediately and second jobs if need be sometime in April. Right now I'm looking at a design internship in Chicago with Motorola that is looking promising. Cross your fingers! I need to write a resume. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend!

Ahhh....

Right now I'm sitting and waiting on the return of the professor from hell. Blah. Hopefully he won't use up all 3 hours of class time on the first day like he did last time. I want to get today over with asap so I can go home and cuddle up in my blankets since its FREEZING and icy outside. Ugh.

Large Quantities of Cheap Alcohol = Bad Idea.

2010-01-18T02:09:00.003-06:00

Initiation is always, ALWAYS stressful.
Sure, it sucks for the pledges but it sucks from the other side too.
I can't get into specifics, but I am absolutely and completely exhausted right now.

We didn't finish until about 3 in the morning and still partied after that. I had it in my mind that I would have a glass of wine and go to bed because I was really tired and wanted to run errands the next day. I had a 1.5 liter bottle of White Zinfandel in the fridge and, of course, ended up drinking about half of it.

Since I hadn't eaten since like 3 that afternoon I was completely obliterated in the span of an hour and a half. Not to the point of blacking out, no. I'm proud to say that I have only done that once since August. A record. Anyway, I gathered my things and went back up to my room and changed into sweats and went to bed. I remember that. What I don't know is how I woke up in the hallway outside my room, locked out and with my socks soaking wet and still drunk later that morning. I remembered locking my door before I slept as I always do on weekends to prevent drunk people from barging in. It seems that this time, I prevented my drunk self from entering.

I must have gotten up to go to the bathroom or something and was just so unbelievably tired/still kind of drunk that I don't remember doing it. The wet socks, though... a complete mystery. I must have moseyed on into a shower with a wet floor. Why I would do this, I don't know but I probably did. No big deal, though. I had to wake up Kyle who has a master key and get him to open my door (actually, I just took the key and did it myself and gave it back to him because I felt really bad for waking him up). I then spent the whole day napping. I was a little hungover, but actually not too bad. Just hella tired.

Watched the Golden Globes. The only reason I really wanted to watch was to see if Glee would win any awards. I have a sick obsession with that show. If you haven't seen it, go watch it immediately. I saw like two episodes, fell in love and went out and bought the first season. I've seen it all now and I can't wait until it comes back in April. It won for best TV series comedy/musical so that was super.

Now, everyone is drunk again. I am not. I do, however, have to pee really bad but I don't want to go upstairs because I really don't feel like dealing with drunks right now because I know that they will try to suck me in or follow me back to my room or force me to stay and hang out (last night I was briefly taped to a chair... but I was drunk too so I didn't mind). I just want to sleep. Oh well. Sacrifices. I'm also going to be lulled to sleep by the sweet sounds of the song 'Orgasmatron'... no, not the song by Motorhead. The one by Avenue D. The one about vibrators. Look it up on youtube. Its too inappropriate for iTunes.

Moral of the Story: Do not buy large quantities of cheap alcohol. My 1.5 liter bottle of wine cost me... $5. The last time I bought it, I ended up drinking the WHOLE thing, blacked out at the house and woke up in my apartment with my dress in the toilet. This time I drank half and woke up in a hallway with wet socks. Just don't do it.

Summer Plans

2010-01-05T15:49:00.003-06:00

Its only January but I already need to start planning for the summer.
I have no idea what to do. I have a few options and to make any of them happen I need to start working on it now.

Situation #1 - Study Abroad
This summer I could study abroad in Italy. If I do, I need to renew my passport like now, set up a meeting at the study abroad office to pick a program (Verona or Florence), apply for scholarships and a loan, and probably try to get a job for the spring. Once I got back it'd be work at Walgreens after that until school starts back up in the Fall.

Situation #2 - Internship
Internships are really difficult to get, especially for graphic design. They're either unpaid... and I need money or they require experience in things I haven't learned yet or they're in New York or California. I wouldn't mind going to one of those places to work, but that also requires money because most of them don't set up housing for you. I know I could get an internship not related to my major, but at the same time those are hard to come by these days too and a lot of them want people who are interested in their fields.

Situation #3 - Be a Lazy Bum
This involves... working at Walgreens and picking up a second job, probably a waitressing job and just spending my entire summer working so I can save up more to study abroad in the summer of 2011. This would suck, but if its what I need to do I suppose I can deal with it.

Either way, I'm hoping that all of these 3 situations involve a trip to Mexico in May before they start. A couple of girl friends and I are planning on going, hitting up an all-inclusive resort in Cancun or Playa del Carmen and laying on the beach drinking Margaritas for a week. I need this or rather I will definitely be needing this after the spring semester is over. Ughh, this is stressful for sure. I hope I can have things figured out by sometime in February or early March.

Break is the Best

2010-01-02T19:18:00.004-06:00

I love winter break.
I'm going to hate my life when winter break no longer exists.

All I've been doing is sleeping and watching the Blackhawks. Its so nice to just kick back and have nothing to do. I've been working, but not a lot. I actually called into work tonight because I have a sinus infection and an ear infection. What a way to start the new year!

Anyway.

New Years eve started out pretty good. I went shopping at Woodfield with my mom, intent on spending my Christmas money and gift cards. Funny thing, though, the only thing I ended up buying was an adorable tea pot from Anthropologie. It was on clearance and it was calling my name. I'm considering it as saving things up for my future badass apartment.

I already have visions in my mind about how I'd like to decorate. Sure, my taste may change in a few years, but hey... you can't go wrong with an adorable tea pot for $15. Sure, there were no cups that went with it, but I love to mix and match stuff, so its cool.

The rest of New Years eve? It was a bit sketchy. I wasn't sure what my plans were all day, but I knew who I was going to hang out with. Well it turns out that it was me and one of my girlfriends and then two of our really good guy friends, one of whom was in town for just a few days. I was really excited until I heard that their girlfriends were coming. I hadn't met either of them, but apparently one of them already had a bit of a bad reputation. I don't know what for, so I just went with an open mind.

They seemed nice enough, but they barely spoke the whole time we were there and just sort of cuddled with the boys like Mary and I were some sort of threat. It just made the whole evening really awkward. At least Mary and I had each other, us two lonely members of the singles club.

Either way, I'm glad that 2009 is over and I'm looking forward to what 2010 will bring. To quote my friend Ivan "Hopefully 2010 will be like a Japanese game show--you never know what's going on or what's gonna happen, but you know it will be entertaining".

That's really how I'd like it to go down. Japanese game shows are hysterical, I can only hope that my life would be as interesting.

Also, a quick "suck it" to my Typography professor.
Thanks for the B+ a-hole.

Challenge Creates Productivity

2009-12-08T00:14:00.004-06:00

Today was probably the most productive day I've had all semester.
Nice to see that my determination showed up riiiiiight at the tail end of things. :/

Anyway, I went to all my classes (gasp!), pretty sure I did well on my Italian quiz.
I can now command people to do things. Right on.

Let me preface this next bit with a bit of background: In my typography class, we were all asked to create our own original font based on an inspiration assigned to us by the professor. Then, we had to bring the font onto the computer and create the letters in photoshop. Then, we would be assigned someone else's font to create samples with (ie- make words, sentences, whatever...). So basically, we were going to work on the samples today which I figured would be easy peasy.. just a simply copy-paste job.

No.

I come into class and my lovely (-cough-) professor tells me he has a surprise for me that I am going to love. I told him that I was quite sure that I would not like any sort of surprise he could give me. He laughed at me and left the room to return moments later with a large box. The only phrase that came to mind was "fuck my life". I was given the most difficult and involved font to work with. Why is it so difficult? Because the girl's inspiration was "Do It Yourself" projects. So I had to use her molds to create the letters out of wire, photograph them individually and bring them into the computer myself. SO much more work than anyone else has to do.

I asked to leave class early so I could go buy said wire and get started right away since the samples are due on Wednesday.

Moral of the Story: I kicked that font's ass. I guess my professor finally pissed me off enough to get me to do something all in one go. As we know, the key to get me to do most anything is to piss me off (and if it challenges me at the same time, then right on).

So I'm done with it already. What up productivity. Nice to see you again.

I got a lot of work done for my other design class too, though I still have a couple more things to finish up for that before its totally done.

So suck it, Graphic Design.
I rock.

- ~~synthesis movie edits~~
- ~~Do typeface specimens~~
- Archive typography work
- Edit comic, ~~gig posters~~
- Finish ~~City of God~~, Blade Runner projects
- ~~Finish 'See what I'm Saying' projects~~
- ~~Italian Quiz~~
- Psych Quiz
- ~~Atmospheric Science homework/labs~~
- Italian Oral Exam
- Psych Final
- Atms Final

Oh, and I made dinner tonight, too.
Zing.

Oh, oh. Here is something for laughs.

Weekend Shenanigans

2009-12-07T11:40:00.003-06:00

Well, it was really only Friday that was full of shenanigans, but you know, one day like that counts for the whole weekend for me these days. We had a party at the house, an outer space theme so I put on a sparkly dress and called myself a galaxy all night.

Played beer pong with jungle juice. I do not recommend this to anyone.
Especially when the juice has way too much gem clear in it.

Anyway, we had a fog machine, black lights, strobe lights, disco lights... it was intense.
I got quite silly and ended up going to sleep around two, but the nonsense continued for awhile even after I fell asleep. I could hear it, haha.

The squirrels living above my ceiling are quite lively these days, running around and growling, fighting... its really noisy. One of them like crashed into something last night and woke me up. Freaked the hell out of me. I'm kind of learning to live with them, though. I might name them soon.

Two more days of class :)

- ~~synthesis movie edits~~
- Do typeface specimens
- Archive typography work
- Edit comic, gig posters
- Finish City of God, Blade Runner projects
- ~~Finish 'See what I'm Saying' projects~~
- ~~Italian Quiz~~
- Psych Quiz
- ~~Atmospheric Science homework/labs~~
- Italian Oral Exam
- Psych Final
- Atms Final

The End of Semester To-Do List.

2009-12-01T13:23:00.003-06:00

And so we're here.
The obligatory to-do list.
6 more days of class, then two finals and I'm out of here!

- Finish synthesis movie edits
- Do typeface specimens
- Archive typography work
- Edit comic, gig posters
- Finish City of God, Blade Runner projects
- Finish 'See what I'm Saying' projects
- Italian Quiz
- Psych Quiz
- Atmospheric Science homework/labs
- Italian Oral Exam
- Psych Final
- Atms Final

Also: All Christmas shopping. I haven't done any yet, basically. D:
My family is so hard to shop for its not even funny.

I am a Culinary Goddess

2009-11-20T09:37:00.002-06:00

So, yesterday was the APX Thanksgiving dinner, one of my favorite events of fall semester.
I was in charge of cooking our 3 giant turkeys.
I have never before in my life cooked a turkey, let alone three. I felt so dumb haha. Of course, no one else knew how either so it was the blind leading the blind and telling the other blind person to google it.

But... with no experience... they turned out DELICIOUS and looked like they had come straight out of a magazine. Needless to say I was proud of myself and gloating all night about it. Can't help it. When you make something that big for like 40 people you get a bit of an ego about it. :)

Unfortunately, I was sooo full... I fell asleep before the beer olympics that followed even started. Perhaps that was a blessing in disguise. God saying, "No, Katie, you really need to go to class tomorrow and not be a hungover mess when you drive your friends home afterwards."or perhaps God was saying, "No, Katie. People don't want to be put to shame by your skills at drinking games too, tonight. The turkey was enough."

I'm sure nothing God had to say last night was about the fact that underage drinking is illegal. I like to think he's cool like that.

Today, I finally get to venture home for a glorious week of relaxation. Well, some relaxation. Some work for turning in my final design projects. Well, lots of work. But, hopefully it will also be filled with Christmas shopping, thanksgiving cooking, and snuggling with my big smelly dog. I'm a bit scared about cooking large amounts of food for the family with him in the kitchen, though, since he can get himself up and get things off the counter. My mother was cooking the other day and had to do something in another room. She literally took ALL of the food with her so that he wouldn't get at it while she was gone, 'cause goodness knows he would have gotten dinner.

Glad I wasn't there, I'm no help in those situations because it just makes me laugh. Silly puppy.

Aaand... time for class.

T-Minus 7 days 'till BREAK!

2009-11-13T15:18:00.003-06:00

I am so so excited. In a mere seven days I will be on my way home for a glorious week of break. I can't wait :)

Right now I am cleaning my room so that my mother doesn't get all crazy when she and dad come down tomorrow for the dad's weekend football game. Gonna have to help clean the house too for the cookout and stuff. It'll be fun and actually pretty warm, which is awesome.

That means there's more of a chance that we'll stay for the whole game. If it got cold I'm sure my mom (and probably me after like.. halftime) would want to leave early. I usually try to stay for the whole game unless we're losing really bad or I'm really really cold. Obviously, because this football season has sucked so hard, I haven't stayed for a whole game save for like.. two. Sad.

Anyway, this week my partner and I are going to knock out our final project for Typography and then that nightmare of a class will be basically over, thank god.

This semester is winding down and I couldn't be more happy for it.
Soon enough, soooooon enough.

PS- There is something living in the ceiling above my bedroom and it is starting to freak me the hell out. I think its a squirrel or something. It sounds bigger than a mouse. Its always running around and scratching and squeaking, especially at night but now during the day too.

Must find the boys and have them look into it for me.

Getting Back to Normal-ish

2009-11-02T22:28:00.003-06:00

So, things have improved some since my last post.
Its been a rough couple of weeks for sure, but I'm slowly coming to terms with what happened. Its one of the most difficult things in the world to lose a friend.

I went home for the weekend on the following Thursday, skipped class on Friday and went to the wake and funeral. It was one of the hardest [if not THE hardest] things I've ever had to do, ever. Nothing compares to it. It just sucks, for lack of better term.

We still don't really know what happened. The initial autopsy was pretty much inconclusive so they sent away for more info. Either his brain or his heart, hopefully we'll hear soon. I think we all need some sort of closure to really accept it.

Its just so strange to think that Vince isn't going to be around anymore.

No more ridiculous stories, no more dumbass stunts, no more teasing me, no more drinking contests or great hugs or general nonsense.

Still. Its slowly getting easier.

In better news... I got a B on my midterm critique.
I was shocked. I thought that at the very most I would get a C. I honestly thought it would be even lower than that. I actually have a shot at an A- in Typography which shocks me but now I'm really going to try to go for it.

I still have a shit ton of stuff to get done for other classes, but I'm hoping that I can manage it. I've been sleeping so much these days its like all I want to do. Not necessarily because I'm depressed, I'm just always tired. Maybe I'm anemic. I'm always cold too, haha. I'm always piling on the layers, seriously. Jeans, boots, sweatshirt, north face.. Sooo sad.

Time to start the count down to Thanksgiving break, though.
I have NEVER been more in need of or excited for a break. I'm so worn out and exhausted by this semester. Seriously.

That, and I love Thanksgiving.
[and I get to have two Thanksgivings!! APX Thanksgiving which is deeeeelicious and ridiculous and always followed by beer olympics and Family Thanksgiving which is always fun and increasingly ridiculous as each year passes.]

The Worst Day Ever

2009-10-19T22:29:00.002-05:00

I'm pretty convinced today was the worst day ever.
I don't know that anything else is going to be able to top it for a long, long time.

This morning I set off back to school after a really nice weekend home. Everything was going alright until I got pulled over around Rantoul for going 73 in a 65. How stupid is that? I was lucky, though. The cop was nice and just gave me a warning, so I plan on... not telling my parents about this one. Never been pulled over for speeding before this and I always figured if I did it'd be for going like... 90. 73? Whatever.

Then, I got back to school. I missed my first class, because I was late after being pulled over. I went about my day as usual when I get a text from like 3 different people in my frat telling me to come home from class immediately, that there was an emergency. In my rush home, I tripped and fell into the gravel. How graceful.

I left class and when I got home, the entire chapter was there, as well as some police officers. One of my very dear friends and frat brothers had passed away that morning. No one knows what happened. He was out for a jog and he just collapsed and died. Vince was the last person I'd ever expect this to happen to. He was a smart kid, active.. in good shape. He didn't do drugs, got good grades, played rugby... Sure, he could party hard, but he wasn't stupid.

The next couple of hours were spent crying, hugging, crying some more and just being shocked, which I still am. I went to a church with some of my other frat brothers. Sure, it was catholic, but I just needed somewhere to pray so I went. Since then, I've just been crying off and on and feeling sick to my stomach. I'm just shocked and kind of scared. It could have been any of us.

This kid who was just texting me on Saturday night and making fun of me is no longer here. I'm still kind of expecting him to show up at the house and be like "Haha, hey guys. Just kidding about that whole dying thing."

Vince, you're such a jerk for leaving us like this.
You were so looking forward to turning 21 on Friday... I hope they give you a huge party up in heaven. Your happiness and enthusiasm were contagious and your laughter infectious. Your shenanigans always amused me and the house will never, ever be the same without you. Rest in peace, man.

The rest of this week is going to be very difficult, but somehow I just need to keep going. Life is precious and we all need to make the very best of the time we have. If this ordeal has taught me anything it is that we should all be grateful for our lives and everything that we have, because you just never know.

Its Over! Its Over!

2009-10-14T23:28:00.001-05:00

Critique is over!
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be :)
Of course, I haven't gotten my grade yet but I still feel pretty good about things.

I have NOTHING due tomorrow.
Wow.

So, for the first time in almost two weeks I am going to bed before 2am!

Life is good :)

[Until the next critique, of course.]

Critique Blues

2009-10-08T23:38:00.002-05:00

I hate critiques.
I hate them so much.
Especially when I have an instructor that has incredibly unrealistic expectations and classmates who seem to be able to meet those expectations with no problems while I'm struggling.

Do I think I'm capable of being a designer?
Yes.

Does it still make me feel like crap?
Yes.

I think its just because I'm super overwhelmed right now. I need a break so badly. My brain can't process all of the things that I have to do and thus I run out of ideas and can't come up with new ones. When I'm as stressed as this its hard to make myself do the work that I know I need to do.

I have a midterm critique next Wednesday.
I'm going to be evaluated by pros and I don't feel like my stuff is up to snuff. That is stress right there. Pure stress.

I don't know what else I would do if I didn't do graphic design. Its just hard to have a major that makes you feel horrible on a daily basis.

I'll get over it, though. I swear.
I just need to get past these next couple of weeks so I can finally have a break.

Currently I Want:
- A hot bath
- Stir Fry or any other decent food
- An evenly heated room
- Snow
- For Typography to disappear
- Sleep
- Sleep
- Sleep
- A very large cocktail
- IDEAS

X-Acto Knives

2009-10-05T20:48:00.002-05:00

Let me just start off by saying this:

The very last thing an exhausted and frustrated art student should be using is an x-acto knife.

That being said:

OW.

So far I've poked myself in two different fingers, put a nice scratch on my thumbnail and made a little slice in the top of my hand. None intentional. At least none of them bled too much as x-acto cuts usually do. Seriously. I have so many projects going on right now its borderline disgusting. I feel like its time for another list.

This week:
- Typeface designs A - P finished for Wednesday
- Drawings of typeface inspiration due for Wednesday
- Projection experiment due for Wednesday
- Comic book sketches due Tuesday
- Psych Midterm Tuesday
- Pledge Education night on Wednesday [must attend because I have a pledge kid]
- Dinner with pledge kid
- Work on typography papers for Wednesday
- Acetone Transfer for Monday
- Gig Poster sketches for Thursday
- Cleaning house for Homecoming on Thursday
- Apartment hunting
- Drinking and Debauchery on the weekend [aka Football and Alums w/ alcohol]

So clearly this is going to be a busy week. Some of it will be fun like apartment hunting with the boys [yup, I'm living with 3 guys next year] and football on the weekend but life is basically going to suck until Wednesday. After Wednesday I can relax until.... eh, next Monday? Sort of?

Sheet Music

2009-09-24T15:21:00.002-05:00

I want to buy some new sheet music...

We have a piano in the house and I want to use it. Its a super old piano and I doubt its been tuned within the last fifteen years, but it still works. Maybe I'll see if I can petition to get it tuned. It could really use it and I bet there are others in the house that would like to see it tuned as well. There are some other piano players in here, some better than me since I'm so desperately out of practice.

I remember back during my horrendous freshman year of college I would go down and lock myself in a practice room in the basement of my dorm for a couple of hours at a time just so I could get away from my room and my roommate. There was a piano in each practice room, but they were less cool than the one we have at the house... still, they were tuned haha.

Anyway, just random thoughts. I figured I would post to pass the time until the Grey's Anatomy premier later. I'd take a nap... but for some reason I just don't feel like it today. I was so tired this morning and had such a bad headache.. but now I have energy and am super awake. Guess thats not a bad thing. Probably due to the delicious espresso royale oolong tea I am currently drinking. Yum. Perfect for a rainy day.

On another note: Rainy days should stick around until the first frost. It makes the aphids go away : )

Sometimes life kicks you right in the balls.

2009-09-22T17:31:00.001-05:00

Today started off as a pretty good day.
I was running late for class, but still managed to make it in time to get my caffeine fix beforehand. Aphids weren't too bad this morning, though I still had at least ten of them stuck to various parts of me by the time psych started [not to mention the one I fished out of my eye, ew!].

Still, it wasn't bad.
I had lunch, which was good. I don't always have time for that.

Of course, then I got outside and it was pouring rain.
Well, lucky me I remembered my umbrella. Of course.. I was wearing shorts and flip flops and it had gotten cooler outside. I made it to class pretty wet from the waist down, but still not entirely in a bad mood. My mood worsened over the course of class because I was freezing the whole time, but I was convinced I would get over it.

After class I walked home warmer and happier and stopped at my car to get my laundry that I had left in there. From there... it all went to hell. First, I slipped and fell into a mixture of mud and drywall dust... and so did my laundry. The guys working on the garage got a kick out of that. Humiliating? Yes. Now I have to re-do all my laundry. This, of course, sparked another thought. They're working on the garage.. do I need to move my car? The answer, of course, was yes so I had to move my car about seven blocks away and figure out this buildings parking garage which is super confusing. Walked back home and got hit with a bunch of mud falling out of trees.

This, in turn, attracted more aphids of the aphid plague down here and I got back to the house with a large amount of the stupid little flies on me and had to wipe them all off. Gross. What else now? Are the washer and dryer going to break down? The refrigerator already did.

Did I mention I'm pulling an all-nighter tonight?

: )

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-08T11:24:00.002-05:00

Coming home this weekend was nice... except for the fact that I was sick for most of it. Not like a cold, flu nasty sort of sick, but an infection so I was just tired the whole time. I slept for most of Friday after I got home and Saturday.

Saturday, though, I went to my Aunt's house with my parents despite swearing to myself that I was going to do everything I could to avoid going. See, I don't get along with my Dad's sister that well. Well, no, we get along, but I'm not a huge fan of her. Still, I somehow ended up going and it went a lot better than I thought it would. First off, cousin Danny's baby is precious. I wonder if I should still be calling him Danny even though he's married and has a baby... Old habits die hard. Anyway, he was the chubbiest, cutest little thing and he was quite the flirt. Adorable. And he's named after Grandpa. The food they served was mostly old recipes of my Grandma's. It was funny, because although I don't remember them, they smelled and tasted like she would have cooked them.

I saw my other Aunt too. Its sad, seeing her the way she is but I was glad to see her nonetheless. She's funny. She has her moments where you'd swear that there was not much wrong with her mentally. My cousin said a smart ass thing and without missing a beat she told him to shut up like she probably would have a long time ago. She even remembered to ask me how school was, which was pretty impressive.

Anyway, after that was another party on Sunday. A surprise party for my friend's mom's 50th birthday. The whole time she was bitching about how she wasn't technically '50' yet and that nobody was allowed to tell her that she was. It was hilarious. I was only there for an hour or two, because one by one the friends that I had that were there decided that they didn't feel like being there anymore. I say 'friends', but I'm talking about one person pretty much. Another girl and I stayed until almost ten and then left.

The next day we had all agreed to go to the parade since we always go to all the parades. We have for the past few years. I had volunteered to drive everyone, so I got up around 8 in the morning to get ready to pick them all up between 9 and 9.15. I get a text while I'm in the shower that one of them "doesn't feel good" and is no longer going to go. Yeah, I believe that one. Not. She has a great history of lying when she doesn't feel like doing something so I'm pretty sure she was full of shit. How nice that I came home to see her and she didn't feel like seeing me. Anyway, the other one texted me a little bit later that she couldn't go either because she had to run 16 miles. She's training for the Chicago marathon. I know that, but couldn't she have told me that last night? So I finally texted the third one to see if she still wanted to go and no response. So, no parade and I got up super early for no reason when I was still kind of under the weather just to see them.

Kind of a downer.

But it wasn't a total loss of a weekend. I got stir fry and I got to spend time with my puppy and I'm pretty sure I almost have my mother convinced that we should get another boxer around Thanksgiving/Christmas. Two is better than one. We've heard it from so many people. If you have two of them, they're less likely to misbehave and they won't be so crazy when people come over. Makes perfect sense and since Jack is out of his mind he could use another dog to balance him out.

Fingers crossed!!

Semester Beginning Jitters

2009-09-02T20:43:00.003-05:00

Well, its fall and thus a new semester has started.
I'm only in the second week and am already losing my mind.

Living in the house with everyone is fun, I'm enjoying it, but I still miss my apartment where it was quieter and all that jazz. This will be a neat experience for one year though and next year I'll have an apartment again. With roommates or not I'm not sure yet. I might get a one bedroom.. A friend of mine is living by herself and lived by herself all summer and said she really loved it so I'm considering it an option.

Sadly, we here at the U of I do have to think of these things this freaking early. People are already signing leases for the next school year in October so I need to start looking in September, I think. Wow!

Anyway, on to classes:

Italian won't be too bad. There's no attendance policy which I love! And its only three days a week as opposed to four like my previous Italian classes because this is only a grammar review. The professor is nice and she speaks so much slower than my previous professors so its so much easier to understand her.

Abnormal Psychology is very, very interesting. I really like it. Its a class all about mental disorders and things like that. I've only had a few classes so far but I really, really like it! If GD doesn't work out maybe I'll go into clinical psych...

Meteorology is fine. I've taken a class like it before and its just a 100 level so its not bad. Interesting and a nice, easy way to get my last math credit out of the way.

Typography... this class is going to KICK MY ASS. Seriously. There is so much work and the professor is quite picky and has extremely high standards. It doesn't help that the people around me are all trying to be super gung ho about design and make me feel kind of like an idiot who doesn't get it. I'm going to give it a shot though this semester and do my best. I'm already super stressed in this class. Hopefully it will get better.

Image Making is going to be a ton of work too, but I like the professor a lot better and it makes all the difference in the world. There are some projects I'm kind of interested in for this class and he's a lot more lenient about them and more laid back about due dates and such because he understands that this other class is such a chore for all of us.

So anyway. I have to create a font this semester for the Typography class. He assigned us each a topic out of ten personal inspirations we came up with for ourselves. Mine was 'friends' and he simply told me to 'pick a person' and go with it. Well, I'm not picking a person. Instead, I am going to be making my font based on imaginary friends, so take that professor! :)

In my research about imaginary friends today I came across a fun website that I'd like to share with you all: I Used to Believe is a really fun website were people post things that they used to believe as a child from stories about imaginary friends to lies their siblings told them. I submitted a few myself like the one where my dad lied to me and told me that he had a pet dinosaur as a kid and I went off and told my entire kindergarten class about it. Of course, another favorite went in there too where I used to believe that if I yelled 'change light!' at a red light it would immediately change to green because I said so. Its cute.

Also, go check out the blog Forgotten Bookmarks. I find it totally fascinating. I check it every day now.

Go check it out!

Mexico!

2009-07-05T16:37:00.003-05:00

Well, after a week of vacation I feel pretty good. It was nice to get away. My mom and I took a week trip to Riviera Maya in Mexico and spent the entire week laying by a pool and drinking. It was fabulous. We didn't take any of those excursions to see anything or do anything, just woke up early, had breakfast and laid out and swam pretty much every day. Went out to the beach a few times and got in the ocean. It was beautiful. The resort was huge which meant a lot of walking, but hey walking isn't really a bad thing so we got used to it pretty quickly. It rained 3 of the days but we got a little bit of sun in each day so it wasn't a total loss. The money that we didn't spend on excursions went to massages, my favorite!

Seeing my mom take shots was probably the best part. It was hysterical. She took 2 Kamikaze shots (vodka, triple sec, lemon juice) that were pretty weak and loved them, but then the bartender made our third shots and they were stronger and the look on her face was priceless after she took it. I also got her hooked on amaretto sours, my favorite drink. The day after we got home she went to the liquor store and bought amaretto and sour mix so she could make them at home. I've created a monster!

Not much else going on. Back to work, which is a good thing. I need money desperately for school books and saving up for my possible Italian study abroad. Its annoying though, because my boss keeps scheduling me for shifts in departments that I'm not trained for so there have been some shifts I couldn't do which makes me lose money. I keep writing him notes telling him to not do it, but he still does. It drives me crazy. I'm only working 3 days for the next two weeks which sucks. I was hoping for like 3 or 4 days a week and I'm getting 1 or 2 and one of those three i'm scheduled for is a shift in photo which I can't do, ugh. Hopefully people will call off and I can go in and get me some money.

Summertime

2009-06-06T17:12:00.002-05:00

Summer is the best time of year, provided that is warm enough for summertime activities which as of today it is not. Its kind of sad.

I've been out for a few weeks now and its been wonderful. Just laying around and being lazy has been great. I've laid out in by back yard a couple of times, hung out with friends, did a cancer walk yesterday and I've started working again.

Walgreens is the same as how I left it. Easy job. Easy money. Got a raise and I'm pretty content. I have to save up for study abroad, after all. June is going to be a good month once it warms up :)

I turn 20 in a little over a week and then after that it will be time for Mexico which I can't wait for. A week of laying on the beach, drinking beer and margaritas!

Off to work now to read magazines and get paid for it.

Exhaustion.

2009-05-04T13:19:00.002-05:00

This has been the most hectic weekend ever!
I swear to god, I've never had so much to do in such a short period of time. I didn't even procrastinate this time! I started my projects early, stayed up late working, and they still aren't done!

Mom came down on Saturday and took me out to lunch and shopping because I was tired, burnt out, and pretty much ready to have a breakdown. That was nice. I got a couple of cute (and cheap!) sundresses at Aeropostale and a cute vest from Forever 21.. Went to hobby lobby and got some stuff to finish my projects and then she took home some of my stuff, which is nice. Hopefully now packing up for the end of the year won't be too bad. I highly doubt my apartment is going to be subleased so I can leave a bunch of stuff here too and just move it two blocks over to the house in August :P

I'm in my global lit class right now and I'm trying to pay attention but I can't. I have too many other things on my mind and am secretly on facebook, blogger, and editing rhetoric papers instead. This is like.. the ultimate test in multitasking because I really have a lot to do tonight. I won't be sleeping. I have to finish my embroidery and mount it in its frame and mount all of my information and make sure that its all in order for my picky teacher. Ugh. My drawing final is due at 4 and its done, but it sucks like nothing else. Its awful haha but I was destined to do poorly in that class anyway, so who cares, right?

The MS walk went well yesterday, the weather was beautiful. It was about a 2 mile walk through a forest preserve, which was neat. I enjoyed it. It was only about an hour which was nice because I had a ton of work to do, so I wanted to be home early enough to do it.

Updated To-Do List (for my own reference):

- ~~Finish non-traditional drawing~~
- ~~Finish FINAL drawing project~~
- Finish FINAL design project
- Edit rhetoric papers
- Put edited rhetoric papers together for portfolio
- Finish lecture notes to turn in for Global Lit & catch up on reading (1 of 3 done)
- ~~Call Walgreens so that I can make sure I have a job.~~
- ~~Clean my room. Its gross.~~
- ~~Prepare for Italian Oral Exam~~
- Study for Italian Exam
- Study for Global Lit Exam

Once tomorrow is over my life will be so much easier. Seriously. Tonight it is going to be me, on the couch, in my sweats, with an energy drink, tea, caffeine pills, and piles of work. I'm not going to sleep and I'm going to get it all done darn it!

Oh and my Italian teacher picked on me during my oral exam. She asked me all the questions instead of my partner and then told me I had issues with grammar. Uh, yeah. Of course I do. Anyone would if they were put on the spot and were working on two hours of sleep. Luckily, I knew more facts than my partner, but she had better grammar so I guess together we were two halves of a decent oral exam haha.

I Need Lists

2009-04-27T21:49:00.003-05:00

I always forget things, even really important things that I need to do unless I write them down obsessively and post them up right where I can see them. So, with 6 class days left, here is a list of things that I need to get done:

- Finish non-traditional drawing
- Finish FINAL drawing project
- Finish FINAL design project
- Edit rhetoric papers
- Put edited rhetoric papers together for portfolio
- Finish lecture notes to turn in for Global Lit & catch up on reading
- Call Walgreens so that I can make sure I have a job.
- Clean my room. Its gross.
- Prepare for Italian Oral Exam
- Study for Italian Exam
- Study for Global Lit Exam

This is a little bit unpleasant.. borderline scary ):

Even when I don't intend to skip class...

2009-04-21T12:00:00.002-05:00

That's right. I intended to go to every single one of my classes this week. Of course that couldn't happen because today and yesterday I woke up with awful migranes. It figures. I try to be studious and serious and it just doesn't happen. Oh well. Eight more days of class, two finals and I'm done. Now if only I could register for my art classes that'd be great. They haven't put in my change of major into graphic design so I can't sign up for my design classes until then. So for now I'm only in Italian 210 and Atmospheric Science 100. I'm really only taking the weather class as a blowoff/math credit. I figure if its a gened it should be easy. If I wasn't an art major i'd probably major in atmospheric science/meteorology so its not like I'm not interested in it.

Not much happening in the life of me otherwise. The MS walk is coming up fast and I need to pimp myself out for donations. Aunt Linda is in the hospital right now, I think because she got pneumonia but I guess she was pretty alert and was asking about people which is good. I guess she's gotten more confused over the past couple of years, but has her moments when she remembers a lot of stuff. Apparently they're moving her into an assisted living place once she's out of the hospital which will be good for everyone I think. I also attempted to friend request my cousin Steve on facebook and he ignored me. Whaaaat a douche. I'm half tempted to tell him off but another part of me is telling me to leave it. Whatever. Drama drama drama.

In other news I'm doing embroidery for my latest drawing project. Weird right? But I'm way better at embroidery than drawing so I'm glad for the break from charcoal. My teacher gave me the strangest look when I walked in with all the floss and thread but he thinks its a pretty neat project idea so he's letting me do my thing.

One last story for today. So, some asshole keeps setting off the fire alarm in my apartment building and the other night it went off twice, once at 1.30am and once at 3am. Well, at 3am when it went off my roommate and I saw this kid stumble out of an apartment and walk straight into a pole. He wasn't even leaving the building because of the alarm. It turns out that the pizza guy had come with his food. Anyway, this guy was completely blitzed and probably high off his ass too [it was 4/20]. So my roommate and I head down the stairs to get out of the building when we notice this trail of blood on the ground. We just look at each other and go "Ohhh god..." and we find this kid talking to a really freaked out pizza guy. The pizza guy is telling him not to worry about the pizza but to go get his face looked at since he had a huge gash above his eye that was bleeding profusely all the way down his face and onto the floor all around him. Finally, my roommate takes him and his pizza and delivers him to his roommates and yeah. Great time. Somehow I feel worse for the pizza guy, though.

On Slacking

2009-04-14T00:22:00.003-05:00

With only 3 weeks left in the semester, I have to say I'm a bit worried. I mean, there's not a lot of time left and I've chosen a great time to slack off and by slack off I mean just straight up not go to class. I'm going to do my best for the next three weeks and hopefully pull off some sort of small miracle! It may mean that I won't get much sleep but, really, I'll get tons of sleep once summer gets here so I need to pull through these next couple of weeks!

Mom's weekend is this weekend, so my mom will be coming down to stay for the weekend.. in my apartment haha. That will be interesting, but we'll have fun. I'm anticipating a nice amount of shopping! There's a craft show and this adorable little house that's an antique shop that we've wanted to go to for years and are finally going to go to now. I'm also organizing a brunch at the frat, which will be nice. Its going to be a big turnout, so I hope we have enough food! We should, some people have volunteered to help out and we've gotten our budget increased a bit, which is awesome! The weather this weekend is supposed to be nice too, which I can't wait for. Near 70 degrees! With such a horrible winter, this is something to cheer about! I love not having to wear a coat and I love that its raining instead of snowing.

Tomorrow I have a lot to do. I made graphic design so tomorrow I'm going to go declare my major and possibly also declare my Italian minor! Registration for classes is on Friday and once that's over I'll be relieved. In more good news, Jason Mraz is coming to U of I and hopefully that means I'm going to see him. I loooooooooove him. Love. Hopefully I can get everything accomplished this week that I need to. Someone needs to light the proverbial fire under my ass.

Spring Break Recap

2009-03-29T23:55:00.002-05:00

Spring back is officially over.

What did I do? Pretty much nothing. I would have loved to have gone somewhere, but just laying around at home and relaxing (and shopping) was really therapeutic too.

I'm kind of glad that I'm not going home again for awhile, because the new dog is driving me craaaaaazy. He's adorable and I love him, but I hate that he's teething and his favorite thing to chew on is my arm. His little teeth are sharp and he's super stubborn and won't take chew toys when I try to give them to him instead. So, ow. Luckily, when I'm off for summer break he should be about done with that phase and starting his training, which will be wonderful.

Lots of stuff coming up, but its going to be kind of fun stuff. I have things due tomorrow and Tuesday that I am already done with and then a test on Wednesday, but Wednesday night is a bar crawl for us foundation students who are finally done with our portfolios and Saturday night is our Formal at APX. Its a 1920s themed murder mystery party and I have this adorable purple dress that I'm jazzing up with some 20s accessories. I love it. I've got a bottle of champagne and I'm getting orange juice and dammit I'm making mimosas! I don't care if they're not a "night time" drink, they're delicious.

I'm also going to do my best to work out this week. I need it and I got some new gym shoes, so whats stopping me? I've been eating too much crap at school and need to get into shape for summer. No, I don't think I'm fat, but I'm out of shape and need to tone up a bit and with such a nice workout center so close to my apartment I have no excuse not to go.

I've been watching planet earth for three hours now and I really need to go to bed. Its absurd.

On Being Productive...

2009-03-17T17:51:00.002-05:00

Its a miracle! I'm actually being productive today! Last night I did absolutely nothing aside from going out to $1 sushi night with some girls in my frat, which is part of the reason I skipped classes today. I was overwhelmed and stressed out and so I slept in today, which is stupid because its only two more days until Spring Break. Still, what are you gonna do? It happens sometimes. I'm going to the rest of my classes this week, no doubt and right now I'm at the union doing my homework because I can't focus at my apartment. Too many distractions. I need to do this more often, its so much nicer.

Here's a good story, I got my first parking ticket ever last night. I drove myself and the girls to KoFusion, the sushi restaurant, and parked in a lot with meters. Now, on campus, meters are free after 6 so I figured it would be the same in downtown Champaign since its the same city. Uh, no. Not free until after 9 downtown, oops! So I got a $10 ticket, which isn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be. I'm mailing in the check right after I'm done with my homework and once its paid its off my record, so no biggie. I've only had my car down here two days and I've already gotten a parking ticket and some asshole threatening to have my car towed from my apartment building so he could park illegally, haha. What a tool. Oh well, still worth it.

I'm taking a quick break right now from writing my paper on what a nutball Oprah is, haha. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy watching her show, but I think she's gone off the deep end a bit. On a more positive note, I want to take this opportunity to express my love for Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons. I don't think I've heard a son of theirs that I don't like. I love Frankie and I looooooove the music. Jersey Boys was the best musical I've ever seen and I'm dying to see it again! It was a great birthday present and now I have a small obsession with them, haha.

In better news, two days until break! Yes!! I can't wait to go home for a week and have fun. I'm excited to see my puppy again :) We ended up naming him Jack and I'm still trying to get used to it. It wasn't my first choice, but I like it enough and mom likes it so Jack it was. I like to think we named him after Jack Daniels. Classy. Apparantly, I'm also being rewarded somehow for going to that baby shower with my mother last friday, which is aaaawesome. It was for my cousin Danny's wife, whom I've met once and I hadn't seen Dan or Beth or Aunt Laura for two years prior. Apparantly my cousin Steve has a facebook too and refuses to friend Beth, haha. I'm trying to decide if I care enough to try my luck. He'd probably say no, I haven't seen him in at least 10 years after all, haha. Good God. Drama, drama, drama. Oh well, at least I managed not to say mean things at the baby shower, +10 points for me in the self control area. Beth I have no problem with, she's always been nice to me, Dan too, but Aunt Laura is a bit of a bitch. Pshhh.

Back to my paper and then maybe a trip to jamba juice or the basement of the union to get food. I need to continue with this good streak of being productive. One more plug before I leave. Yesterday I joined the National Bone Marrow Donor registry with my frat and I'd encourage others to join! Just go to www.marrow.org to learn about it. Its just a cheek swab, no big deal, though I did almost pass out while watching one of my friends give blood. It was embarrassing! No big deal for him, he laughed when the lady put the needle in him and I almost lost my mind and nearly fainted. Pathetic. I can't give blood anyway, though, don't weigh enough, so he said he was donating for me, haha. OH. One more thing I'm doing. MS Walk! I'm super excited for it, its going to be fun :) I love walks. Relay for Life in June again, yeah! But May 3rd I'm walking for Multiple Sclerosis, which my Aunt Linda has. I'm walking in Urbana with people in my frat and I need donations, so tell your friends! You can donate online and any little bit helps!

Here is my Personal Page, where you can make the donation! Its an awesome cause, so I'll be whoring myself out for donations the entire month of April and beyond haha.

Crazy Week

2009-03-11T12:25:00.002-05:00

This week has been absolutely absurd. Like, no joke one of the busiest weeks I've had all school year. A paper, a 15 minute speech in a foreign language (which went horribly haha), a presentation, a guest lecture to attend (haha yeah right), a drawing to finish and another one to start and an animation to finish and a storyboard for my next video project to start. Also tonight I'm supposed to go over to the house to watch the new pledges but I think I might skip that because I really need to finish cleaning my apartment and do some laundry before I go home tomorrow. I seriously have no clothes to wear right now.

My roommate is sick again too, poor thing. I think she might have the flu, like a mild stomach flu because she's been puking and has a fever and apparently hurts all over. She just got done being sick too so I feel bad. I"ll probably run to Walgreen's later to get her some more Sprite and saltines, unless the neighbors go for her while I'm in class.

This week has been so hectic that my Italian professor pulled me aside to make sure I was ok, haha. She said that the writing I had turned into her was excellent but that I seemed really stressed out, which I am. I told her that things would get better after spring break and to just bear with me for now. I need to photograph my drawings and put together my portfolio. I put in my application to the program admittance thing on Monday. Graphic Design as my first choice, Photography as my second, New Media (film) as my third, Art Education as my fourth, and Industrial Design as my fifth choice. I'm bound to get into one of them!

As stressful as this week is, tomorrow I get to go home and meet my puppy :) He still doesn't have a name, but among the top choices are Roscoe, Champ, Riley, and Murphy. I personally like Murphy or Champ. We'll have to see. I guess its supposed to be my job to name him, so hopefully I'll come up with something good. Then Sunday I have to come back here and I will have my car down at school for the week which will be awesome, and then after that its Spring Break, which is the most exciting thing since Christmas. Well, no, wearing flip flops last week was better than Christmas, so I guess Spring Break is more exciting than that.

Unofficial Weekend

2009-03-08T19:47:00.002-05:00

Ughh, what a stupid weekend. Friday itself was nice, at least during the day but once it got later and people started arriving, it just went downhill. I'm glad that my friends got to come and visit but I wish I'd had more warning and that the person that had invited them had had more of a part in taking care of them and showing them a good time. They felt guilty but I was glad that they were there, it wasn't their fault, just the girl that invited them who also invited herself and 13 people to my place last night and made a mess and drank my roommate's alcohol.

So now, despite being somewhat hungover, I'm cleaning up and trying to get my work done. I'm going to pay my roommate back for what they drank/stole and yeah. I'm pissed about that. Ugh.

Also, I guess my parents bought a dog today. Or rather, my dad bought a dog. Sure, its exciting but I do wish they had waited until I was home. They asked me and I know that dad really wanted a boxer so I told them it was fine. I'm going home this weekend to see him and I'm sure once I actually get to hold him and play with him it'll be more exciting and I'm sure I'll like him, I just don't know. Its just weird to have learned about it over the phone. Furthermore mom doesn't know if she wants or even likes bigger dogs and I don't want to hear about it for the next 8 - 10 years. I don't know... We'll see on Thursday I guess.

Also, apparantly Grandma is not happy about this dog business. I mean, she's my Grandma and of course I love her and I feel bad to say this, but its really none of her business. She doesn't live with us but mom told her and all she said was "Well, you aren't going to be happy". Like, wow Grandma, vicious. I guess the older you get the less you censor yourself. Sigh.

My Addictions + Other Stuff

2009-03-04T12:26:00.004-06:00

This week is going to be a busy week for me. I have a paper to start, an animation to finish, a portrait to finish, my apartment to clean for guests this weekend. I need to start my Italian speech and meet my group members for my Rhetoric presentation. Its odd, because I don't feel all overwhelmed when I really should. When I get to listing everything I need to do this week I'm not that afraid. Of course, this probably has something to do with the arrival of unofficial this Friday where I will be drunk all day and forgetting about all of these things.

I'm starting to find that I have a couple of addictions. Luckily, they are not to drugs or other such things. No, my addictions are actually quite tame and borderline boring. I am addicted to kettle chips and crossword puzzles. Honestly. Give me a bag of kettle chips and a book of crosswords and I could happily entertain myself for hours. This, of course, does not help me in class when I should be paying attention and am instead agonizing over a four letter word for something obscure. Oh well.

Not much else going on in my life. Nothing new on the puppy front. I thought I had my dad this weekend. I was so close! I saw the cutest Bernese Mountain Dog puppy and fell in love instantly but no. Dad is pretty set on wanting a boxer but I think I can actually convince him into getting a Bernese. They are, without a doubt, the cutest puppies on earth. Seriously, google them, you won't be disappointed. I'm in love with the breed and if we don't get one, that will be the first thing I get when I start living on my own after college. I do, however, have a new pet! I bought myself a goldfish the other day when I came back to school from a weekend home. I named him Stanley and his little bowl is on our glass coffee table. He seems to enjoy watching TV and trying to eat his fake pink plant. Its not a puppy, but its something to feed :)

I have a lot of fun things coming up too, which can distract me from my work! Next week I'm going to karaoke night, the week after its Spring break. After that, the first weekend of April is our Formal for the frat. We'll be having a murder mystery party, awesome! I'm doing a bone marrow drive sometime in April too, and in May I'll be doing an MS walk! One of my Aunts has MS, so its really important to me to walk in this with my frat. Of course, it'll be a pain but I'm going to try to get donations and organize fundraisers down here. I'll probably post a link up to my page on the MS Walk website so people can donate to me online. I'm not sure how long the walk is, but it will be fun. In June, it will be time for Relay for Life again, which I am SUPER excited for. I love relay. I've done it for the past two years and look forward to doing it again this year! So although I have to work, at least I have some things to look forward to.

Oh, and a quick shout out: To the guys upstairs who threw their George Foreman grease all over our door, SCREW YOU. Its disgusting.

Daily Photo Blogs

2009-02-19T00:53:00.003-06:00

So, its 1am and what am I doing? Writing a paper about blogging that's due tomorrow. I figure writing in my own blog will give me some sort of inspiration (which is just a roundabout way of procrastinating). I chose to write about daily photo blogs because I really find them interesting and fun to read. A picture is worth a thousand words, you know? Its one thing to read about something but to be able to see it lends so much more to the blog.

I wish I had the ability to commit to a daily photo blog. I'm just too much of a procrastinator for something like that. I mean, look at this paper! It was assigned like two weeks ago and its 1am and its due tomorrow and I just started.

:)

All I can do is brew some hot tea, turn up the Britney Spears and keep on working. That, and turn off the TV because I've watched the same episode of Top Chef three times in a row now and its borderline ridiculous. That show is like crack. Gourmet crack.

Also, a little side note. I want to quickly express my love for the movie Slumdog Millionaire. It was hands down one of the best movies I've seen in quite a while! If it doesn't win for Best Picture (and for that matter, any and everything else it is nominated for), I will be very upset! Phenomenal movie, absolutely awesome. If you haven't seen it yet, go!! GO NOW!

Busy Busy

2009-02-16T23:05:00.002-06:00

I thought second semester was going to be easier than first semester, but I'm quickly finding out that last semester has nothing on this semester, wow! My classes aren't that difficult, but they are a loooot of work. Drawing especially. Its frustrating enough that I don't like drawing and am not good at it, but its always the class I have the most work for, ugh! Why can't it leave me alone? In other news, I'm attempting to put together my portfolio for my march portfolio review to see if I can get into graphic design. I'm panicking about that, of course, because there are roughly 35 spots in graphic and most of my 175+ person class is aiming for those spots. I'm not that good at anything that isn't graphic design so I'm worried that I'm not going to get in.

I've been thinking about it and I would be happy with photography too, but all that worrying has lead me to wonder if I'm even meant to be an artist. Maybe I should switch my major before I get in too deep. Of course, if I switched, what should I switch too? I'm not really that interested in anything else. Its all a little bit much. I'm just going to apply to my programs and see what happens and then go from there. That's all I can really do, though I'm still going to freak out in the process. Its only mid February and I already need spring break really badly.

Good news, though, is that I think I've finally figured out my plans for study abroad. I think I'll be going next summer, 2010, to Verona, Italy and taking Italian, Art History, and Photography there. It would be from the end of May to the beginning of July (meaning I'd turn 21 in Italy, which is funny because I'd already legally be able to drink there and it would be my second milestone birthday in a foreign country. 16 in London, 21 in Verona). Verona seems like a really neat place. Its not a big touristy city since its close to Venice which is where all the tourists go, but it was the setting of Romeo and Juliet so its a really romantic place and you can go and see "Juliet's balcony"... So thats the plan for that unless I find an Italy program I like better. I'll be spending this summer saving up money for that.

Some stuff to look forward to this week though.. there's our Valentines day dance on Friday (a week late because last week we were welcoming our new pledges!). Saturday my cousin is coming down for the night and we'll have a good time partying. Hopefully I won't have too much work to do this weekend so that I can enjoy it all and not freak out! I need sleep... I was up until 6am finishing a drawing and tonight I'm hoping to get a lot more sleep.

Hello 4 AM

2009-02-03T04:24:00.002-06:00

Why, oh why am I awake right now?

I'm sickkk again, stupid cesspool of a university. Honestly, I'm like constantly sick down here and I need to be well to go ice skating again on Wednesday! Its my roommates 21st birthday and another friend's 20th birthday, tonight is supposed to be a celebration and I want to go out and do so thoroughly! Come onnn! I've taken sooo much medicine to make myself feel better, its borderline disgusting.

Oh.
Thats why I'm awake.
The medicine makes me hyper. And I have to get up in 3 hours, noooo! :(
Of course, I'm not motivated to sleep because I can hear the wind howling outside my window and it does not sound friendly. I do not want to go out and meet it when I have to go to class.

But I'm just bitching to pass the time. I'm fine, I'm going home this weekend so I will be a-ok! That and I only have class Monday through Thursday so really, its not that long of a week.

A day of rest.. kind of.

2009-01-30T23:13:00.002-06:00

So, what have I been up to lately? Oh, lots of things surprisingly. Spring recruitment has begun so I've been toasting marshmallows in a dirty fireplace, ice skating, and bowling all over the place. Its a nice change of pace, actually going out and doing activities, but I'm tired, so I've stayed in the past few nights whilst my friends party it up, but hey, I partied a bit too hard last week so I need a bit of a break. Can't be having that much fun all the time. Its not good for the liver or for the wallet.

Anyway, classes have started and I can tell I'm going to be busy. The classes themselves aren't bad, save for drawing because I absolutely abhor drawing, but I do like my professor. He's a monotonous self-proclaimed asshole (no, seriously, it was the first thing he said to us), but in that sarcastic way that I can relate to, so I like him and I'm doing some extra credit so that I can keep my grade up since my actual drawing skills suck a whole lot. In my design class right now, I'm doing 3D again, which is pretty lame, but I have the same professor as last semester and he knows I hate it and that its not my thing. We're on the same wavelength, so I enjoy his class well enough and its only 5 weeks long and then the class starts a new section, so yay. Then theres Italian 4 which is way more difficult than Italian 3, but with the same professor and a few friends from my old seven person class, so its not bad. That, and its at 11am now instead of 9am so no more falling asleep. I'm in a writing class too, which is weird, but my teacher is a grad student and she's pretty nice so I think it'll be ok. Its just 4 papers and 1 presentation so no big deal there. Lastly, a global literature classs which is actually really interesting. We looked at a bunch of historical maps and talked about how they relfected the world views of their creators and stuff and I think I'm going to like the class so yay!

Last week was relatively party crazy. I went out quite a bit and so now I'm taking it easy. Its hard to say no when you have nothing else to do and 50 frat brothers to bond with who have booze haha. So I had my fun and did my bonding and it was good. I went ice skating for the first time in a couple of years too and I'm surprised by how much I missed it! I'm having my dad get my skates sharpened at home so I can bring them back with me in case we go again and I hope we do!! I'm not as good as I used to be but I didn't fall and it was a ton of fun, definitely one of my favorite things to do. Bowling.. as usual I have no skill whatsoever. Its just throw the thing and hope it hits something which it usually doesn't haha, but it was still fun. I thought about going out tonight but decided on getting some jamba juice and laying around in my apartment and so far I'm content with that.

Today I was going to try to clean my entire apartment... obviously that did not happen. At least I got my laundry done, though. I needed clean clothes desperately haha. With a washer/dryer unit in the apartment I have no excuse to not do it. More good news, I finally got a new cellphone. I've been wanting one for a long time and my razr started to crap out on me yesterday so my roommate drove me to the verizon store and I got an enV2 which I loooove and then spent like two hours at the mall, which was also fun. I wish I had my own car, but its nice that she was willing to take me! Thats about it for now. I'm super tired and need to find a good ringtone for my phone!

Hello, world.

2009-01-20T16:43:00.002-06:00

Its me! I'm back at school!
Winter break was all I wanted it to be and more :)

I had fun lazing around and sleeping and doing nothing, going shopping, hanging out with my friends in the 'ville. Took a road trip to Peoria to hang out with pledge brothers. Speaking of, I am no longer a pledge, yay! I had my initiation from Wednesday to Saturday last week. It was brutal and long, but it was worth it and I'm so glad I'm a brother now! Yes, brother. Not sister, haha. In every oath I took, I was a man.

So anyway, even though I'm back down in Chambana, I am not ready for school to start yet. I'd be perfectly happy to laze around in my apartment and whatnot, but I don't like this whole school thing. I'm already annoyed with design. I think that its just the fact that I dislike using power tools. I also forgot all of my drawing supplies at home, but luckily, I forgot a few other things and mama is coming down on Saturday to take me to lunch and give me my stuff. I only have drawing on Wednesday this week, so I should be fine for a day without my stuff. Theres bound to be one or two people in my class that I know that I can borrow from anyway.

The one thing I hate the most about being back is unpacking. The second thing I hate is all the salt outside of my apartment. My floors are filthy and I can't walk on them without shoes, which means I have to clean the floor but I really don't want to. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Going to an inauguration party tonight, haha. Should be fun. Having dinner at one of my friend's dorms before hand, which should also be nice. I love free dinners that I don't have to cook! Thats still a couple of hours away, though, so I guess I should clean the floor and then get ready to go! Yay Obama!

2008-12-15T22:08:00.003-06:00

So, two days and I get to go home :)
I have one more final on Wednesday and I have to finish cleaning my apartment and packing by then. What have I been doing instead? Listening to Christmas music, baking, knitting, generally not doing anything related to what I should be doing.

Today was easy. I had my Italian final, which wasn't too bad. I'm going to miss that class. Just the people, not the fact that it was at 9am. That sucked. But the 8 person class was awesome, we were hilarious because none of us wanted to be up and at class at 9 so we were just sarcastic and grumpy all the time. Oh, memories.

Nothing much to do tomorrow other than study. I'm going to go screw around with some of my pledge brothers in the afternoon and go to dinner with a couple friends from elementary school and then come home and finish packing and studying for my art history final aka my 'this class is boring and i can't be bothered to stay awake for it' class final. God, I hate art history. Its drier than a saltine cracker and definitely not as tasty.

In other news, I am pretty sure I was bitten by a brown recluse spider. I have this disgusting bite on my ankle thats all greenish and swollen and stuff (not like extremely, though. the whole thing is the size of a dime haha). So now I have to ice it and take an antibiotic and see if I get a fever or nausea or whatever other symptoms come along with those bites. I'm doing my best not to be a hypochondriac about it. I checked my bed for spiders like two minutes ago and saw this huge black thing, almost screamed, and then realized that it was a big piece of lint. Still, hopefully I'll be able to treat it by myself without having to to to McKinley (or McKillme as we like to call it) the oh so reliable campus clinic. I mean, at least if I go I get free condoms and a sucker?

Take That Realtor Lady!!

2008-12-11T00:18:00.002-06:00

Got my late fee on my rent revoked.
Someone came in and looked at the window.
Was apologized to profusely.

Just goes to show you how being a bitch can pay off.

Window still isn't fixed, though.

Still, classes are done for the semester so I'm in such a joyous state that I cannot be brought down save for by the thought of impending finals.

So let me express to you how much I enjoy having a teacher that tries so hard to not be offensive when critiquing your artwork that it just becomes even more insulting than it would have been if he had just said he didn't like your work.

"Oh wow. Thats.. interesting what you did there. I wasn't seeing it like that but now that you mention it I can't see it as anything else and... Well.. I mean, its not a good or bad thing, but... Yeah."

I'd rather you just tell me its a piece of crap.
I already knew it was.
I am not a 3D artist. Never have been, never will be.

So anyway. This evening, after classes were over and done with, my roommate and I decided to crack open the bottle of wine that I have to celebrate. Let me tell you, nothing makes you feel more stupid than having it take over half an hour to open a single bottle of wine. With a corkscrew, mind you. I worked hard for that wine. Maybe that's why it was sooo good when I finally got it open. Makes you wonder if everything would feel better if you struggled for it. I'm not going to ponder that further because I thoroughly do not enjoy struggling. At least not for wine.

Only three tests and I'm out of here for some much needed time at home. Hopefully this time will include shenanigans.

And here I was thinking that I was going to be productive tonight. I sat around, ate pizza, watched Jumanji and drank wine. Last night? Baked cookies and listened to Christmas music. Tomorrow? Maaaaybe some studying.

As a parting thought, Erin, thank you for the Christmas card! I love getting mail so that just made my day. I don't get much mail down here unless its a bill, so it was a nice change :)

The home stretch.

2008-12-07T18:04:00.002-06:00

Yes, its almost almost almost winter break! I cannot wait.
Three more days of classes, three tests, one event at the house and then I am going home!!!

This weekend has had a few ups and downs, mostly ups, so thats good. Our party on Friday was awesome! It was a "hawaiian christmas" theme, so it was fun. I ran around with a mistletoe headband on, had a good (but not ridiculous) amount to drink and decided to go around and try to get everyone to kiss me or to kiss everyone that I knew. They were all on the cheek, but thats acceptable. Theres a guy that I have a little thing for in the frat, so after a few drinks I was obviously paying him special attention which he did not seem to mind. It would have been embarrassing save for the part where I was hugging and kissing everyone else too. So hey, success there.

Had a pretty significant hangover, which wasn't really expected, but thats ok. Its gone now. I had a ton of fun and thats what counts. It was a good ending to a stressful week, save for the part where I flaked out on clean up which may or may not get me in a bit of trouble. At this point, I really do not care, though. With winter break so close, nothing can bring me down.

In other news, I just got done sending an angry e-mail to my realtor. I got an email a few day ago that I owed a late fee on my rent. Its due on the first of every month and since I started living there I've gotten a statement delivered to me every time telling me how much I owe since its always different due to utility fees. This month, I did not get one so my roommate and I were confused. Furthermore, we got our energy bill and it had more than doubled since last month which is ridiculous. We did a little looking around the apartment and found that the sealing on our big windows is faulty and we have SOLID ICE inside our apartment and theres a draft blowing in. Thats why our heating cost so much. My roommate called maintenace twice and talked to three different people. The proceeded to not believe her and argue with her saying that "a little frost was to be expected and was no big deal". My roommate told them that she knew the difference between a littel frost and solid ice and that this was solid ice and that she wanted to someone to look at it. Finally, they agreed that if it was solid ice, that was a pretty significant problem and that they would send someone over in the next two hours to look at it. Three days later, no one has come.

So I emailed them and she is going to as well, saying that we believe the late fee was unfair as we were not warned that there would be no statement, and that we shouldn't have to pay the entire heating bill because of the faulty sealing. I also told them about the maintenance people not coming and that they were argumentative and that it was unacceptable that someone hadn't come. I told them that if it was not fixed and if our heating bill was that high again we were going to have a problem. Its ridiculous. I haven't told my parents yet, but if maintenance doesn't get out here tomorrow, I'm going to tell them and let daddy dearest have a little chat with them.

And now for an update on my to-do list:

~~- Pledge final for the frat~~
~~- Live in week at the frat~~
~~- 2 parties, one Wednesday and one Friday~~
~~- Shopping for parties on Wednesday and Friday~~
~~- Rewriting papers~~
- Journal/Sketchbook
~~- Final project in design~~
~~- Computer Science homework~~
- Italian messages

I'm almost done with the journal and the messages, so I'm almost there! Three more days then some studying and I'm outta here! :)

Hell Week Updates

2008-12-03T12:14:00.002-06:00

I'm a busy little bee again but only for another two weeks.
I'm in a lecture right now, obviously paying attention like a good student...

The longer these weeks are drawn out, the harder it is to focus, but it seems to me like my grades are not going to be as bad as I think they'll be haha. I'm pretty sure I can pull an A in my Contemp. Issues class and my design class. If I do well on my Art History final, hopefully I can pull an A in that too or at least an A- or B+. Italian I thought I would get a B because I missed a bunch of things online but I'm going to make them all up and see if I get any credit at all. Its not as awful as I thought. I got all As on my speeches and an A on the midterm and my attendance hasn't been too horrible, so HOPEFULLY I can get an A. Computer Science, theres obviously no hope for an A but I'm hoping that if I can do well on the final that I can get a B otherwise it maaaay be a C. Oops.

Lots going on at the house this week and I DO get to live there next year :) My room is a tiny little nugget of a room, smaller than the room in my apartment, wow. Still, the bed is lofted and my pledge dad lives in it this year so I can learn all the ins and outs of it now. It'll be fun! My mom is having doubts about it because of how I was in the dorms, but here's how I see it:

Ok, the room IS small, but I can deal with it. Mike dealt with a small room. Thats not a big deal. I know everyone in the house. Its not diving into a house of strangers. We're all friends. Its a single room, I'm not sharing it. Its my own retreat. Yeah theres no A/C in the house, but a small room will be easier to cool. Theres also a chance of a larger room opening up, so I could quite possibly get something better. If I live there again next year, I can get a better room for sure. So I'm not really that worried. I'm kind of excited, really.

And now for an update on my to-do list:

~~- Pledge final for the frat~~
~~- Live in week at the frat~~
- 2 parties, one Wednesday and one Friday
- Shopping for parties on Wednesday and Friday
~~- Rewriting papers~~
- Journal/Sketchbook
- Final project in design
~~- Computer Science homework~~
- Italian messages

For live in week, I've actually only been staying over late and then sleeping at my apartment. Much easier. No one seems to care. One of the parties is tonight, so yay. The other is friday. I also found out that I don't have to take the pledge final, so thats a huuuuge relief. So thats it. One more week of classes. We're done next wednesday, then I can start my finals and luckily my most difficult one is done first! Yaaay.

Break

2008-12-01T10:37:00.002-06:00

Thanksgiving break went by entirely too fast. The whole week was just a blur to me. I saw a few people, but not everyone that I wanted to see. Of course, we'll all be home again in another three weeks. It was so nice to just not have to think, though. To just relax and forget about all my impending deadlines and work to be done. Sure, now its a scramble to the finish line but I'll be ok. I've got break hanging over my head again to motivate me to do better.

Thanksgiving was nice. I ate entirely too much, but the food was sooo delicious... even if one of the turkeys did catch on fire :P

I made numerous trips to Caribou and sat around at other people's houses. I went out to dinner a couple of times and just had a nice time. I love my friends and it just makes me realize how much I do miss them while we're all away from each other. No matter how many other friends I make in college, the bunch at home are always going to be my favorite. We'll always be hilarious together and fun and obnoxious and whatever else we usually are.

Anyhoot, on the agenda for this week:

- Pledge final for the frat
- Live in week at the frat
- 2 parties, one Wednesday and one Friday
- Shopping for parties on Wednesday and Friday
- Rewriting papers
- Journal/Sketchbook
- Final project in design
- Computer Science homework
- Italian messages

Somewhere in there I'd like to sleep. And at some point I'd really enjoy making cookies, though I doubt I'll have time for that until next week. Time to break out the comfy sweats and the caffeine, because I will definitely be consuming a lot of it this week.

On Motivation

2008-11-17T20:44:00.002-06:00

I really wish I was more motivated to do well in things. To put it bluntly, I don't try. I put things off and I put things off and then I end up doing poorly. My grades have slipped this semester because I'm just not motivated to work, and I haven't told my parents yet, but I'm sure they'll find out. I don't know if its because of everything that's happened this semester or just that I've had so much to do that I've just slacked off, but its not good. Its getting to be a more serious problem with me as I keep going. I'll be pulling an all nighter tonight because of my procrastination.

I put off studying for my pledge tests and now I don't have enough seniority points to live in the house next year and I'm going to be scrambling to probably find a one bedroom apartment next year. Awesome. Living by myself, woo. I like having my own bedroom, but I like having people around. I really wanted to live in the house and now it looks like that will be impossible. I'm like 14/19, so I'm right around the bottom. Even still, people below me are sharing rooms with people above me. I had no one to share with, so no room.

Maybe it will end up being a good thing, I just have to try to see it from a positive standpoint. I'm just upset right now, so its hard, but maybe once I'm away from school for a week I'll be able to put it into perspective. For now I'm just ranting.

In better news, its snowed today. It was really pretty and I enjoyed it. I had been griping all weekend about how it was snowing everywhere but Champaign and then when I walked outside this morning there were little flakes coming down. After my first two classes it was snowing pretty good with huge flakes and it was gorgeous. I also found my toolbox that I left in a classroom last Thursday. It was still there today, a professor had put it in cabinet so it wouldn't get stolen, so I got really lucky. So despite the toss up for housing, I guess you can't win 'em all. I've had some good things happen this semester, but this sucks pretty bad.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'll be done with this godforsaken sculpture and the rest of the week should be easy peasy, so I just have to get past tonight. Maybe I'll make myself some comfort food... cornbread sounds delicious right about now.

I feel like a mole person.

2008-11-15T13:37:00.002-06:00

This weekend is going to consist entirely of me sitting around in my room working on an inflatable sculpture. Yep, you read that right. I have a whole crap load of plastic sheeting and duct tape and am crafting it into the likeness of a crab.. that will hopefully inflate when we take the shop vac to it. So I feel like I'm stuck in a cave since my room is sooo messy. I can't even walk in it right now, seriously. I keep telling myself that I'm going to clean it, but I know that I won't.

Anyhoot. I got my nose pierced on Wednesday. That's right, I did it! I love it. On top of it all, I went BY MYSELF. My friend Bridget was supposed to go with me but it turned out that she couldn't. So I was walking by the place later on that day and I thought to myself 'Whats stopping me?'. So I went in, told the guy I wanted my nose pierced, filled out the paperwork and waited. There were two people ahead of me getting piercings so I was sitting there for a good half hour. Then it was my turn. I told the guy that I was terrified of needles and he told me not to worry. He told me what he was doing as he did it and before I knew it, it was over! Its still a bit sore, but that'll stop in a few days.

One week left until I get to go home for Thanksgiving break and I am soooo excited. I seriously cannot wait. I don't think I've ever been this excited for a break before. I've had soo much to do. Next semester is probably going to be worse but at least I don't have to get up for a 9am class everyday. I'll have a 9.30 on Tuesday and Thursday and 11am on Monday and Wednesday, and I managed to get Fridays off! Yaaaay! Now I can go home for loooong weekends!! That and once January comes, the pledge semester will be over, thank goodness! I can't wait for that. I'm so sick of having to do all this work for the Frat. Once Spring semester comes, it'll be my turn to be the one watching the new kids do it!!

This week.

2008-11-11T16:13:00.002-06:00

This week is going to be a rat race, but hopefully the worst will be over after tonight. I have a midterm in three hours that I'm taking a break from studying for. I have a feeling I'm not going to do particularly well on it anyway, since its computer science, but I'm going to try! That's at seven, then I get to come home and finish a paper. I was going to go out to the bars tonight, but I think I'm going to stay in and work.

Tomorrow should not be bad. I have to meet my pledge dad for coffee, then I think I'm going out to get my nose pierced, and then after that I have to work on my inflatable sculpture. Luckily, its due on Tuesday. I thought it was due on Thursday, so I have the whole weekend to work on it. :)

I actually think that's it, so its really just tonight that's a pain in the butt. Also, they finally started closing the garage doors in our building. Guess whose rooms are right above the garage? Me and my roommate. Its soooo loud. We hear it every single time it opens and closes, its so obnoxious! Obviously I have no choice but to get used to it, so whatever. Its just these couple of weeks, I have to adjust to it. I also got a little sensor thing that lets me into the building. I thought it didn't work and then found out that I was pulling on the wrong door. Durrrr.

Time to study again. Woo!

Computer Science Kills.

2008-11-06T19:34:00.004-06:00

Seriously, folks, watch out for it.

I've been sitting in this computer lab for the past 3 1/2 hours trying to do this homework. Seriously. I'm writing a program and I get graded on whether it works or not. Well, everything works except for a few key things and no matter how hard I seem to try, I cannot get this ONE thing to work. Its driving me crazy. I swear, all the good things that have happened over the last couple of days are viciously overshadowed by the fact that I can't figure this out. It drives me crazy when I don't understand things, absolutely crazy. Grrr.

I'm going to attempt to get my brother to help me and if he doesn't know anything, then screw it I don't care and I will turn it in as is and hope that I do really well on the next test and final because I bombed the last one of these homeworks too. It sucks. I did really well on the first three but the last three are something differ
ent that I don't get very well and I'm having a bit of trouble. I understand more than I did like... two weeks ago, but like I said, its just this one thing. I'm doing it exactly as its written for me to do, but no dice.

In other, better news, I'm going to Chicago tomorrow to the S.O.F.A. exhibit at Navy Pier :) Yay functional art? I don't know, it seems interesting. Maybe someone'll have a two story couch or something nuts like that. Mom and Dad are meeting me downtown and we're going to get dinner and I'm going to go home. Then just a week of classes, a weekend, and another week of classes and I'm done. Finito for Thanksgiving. I'll be glad just to be going home this weekend. Allegedly I'm going into the City on Saturday too with some kiddos from college, but I don't know if thats going to go down. I don't really care either way, though. I'd love to just stay at home and be a lazy bum.

Now I'm just waiting for my brother to get online. That little kitty there? Thats how I feel today. The hand? Computer Science.

HALP!

I Have no Immune System.

2008-11-04T12:06:00.002-06:00

So, I just voted in the election, yay me. Most of it was just random since I don't have any ideas about whats going on in Champaign county, but whatever. I'm done, I have my little sticker and I think I might go to Starbucks later to see what free stuff I can get. I like free stuff, especially if it includes yummy drinks.

In other news, I'm sick. Again. Its absolutely pathetic. I have no immune system whatsoever. One of my friends once told me that I had the immune system of an infant. She was right. I was sick a few weeks ago and now I'm sick again. I had to go to the frat last night and before I went I took my temperature and I had a 101 fever. But I took some advil, sucked it up and went over anyway. Yay me. Today I'm not feeling too aweful. It was worse when I woke up but its cleared up some since then.

I had my last speech in Italian today, yay. No more of those! It was on emigration, so I got to talk about my dad's family coming over from Italy and show off some pictures, it was fun :) I have this picture of my dad with my grandpa when my dad was like 12 or so. Its so cute and my grandpa looks like such a greaser in it haha. I looooove it.

Its only a few weeks until Thanksgiving break, thank goodness! I am in desperate need of a break. I start my new section of design class today, which is nice because I'm done with my communications teacher, finally. Talk about a bitch. The only critique she had on one of my pieces was that my "photo could have been taken better" only she said she liked it a lot when I was in the process and then failed to elaborate on what was wrong with it. Whateverrr, I'm done with her. I have to set up a meeting with my advisor soon, but I don't know when. I don't know where his sign up sheet went. I was going to sign up but I didn't see it on his door. Oh well.

The rest of this week is just survival and then I have a field trip on Friday and then I'm going home, meeting my pledge class in Chicago on Saturday for a day of fun and then am going home after that and going back to school on Sunday which will be nice. Then after that its only two more weeks until break and I couldn't be more excited. I'm going to bring my christmas tree back to school with me and my roommate and I are going to decorate it. Speaking of, I need to take our Halloween decorations down now. Its going to be boring with nothing on the window, but oh well. Its a little bit tacky to have spiderwebs up and trick-or-treat in the window when the holiday is past.

Thats it for now, just some random bits of my life. :)

Good News!

2008-10-29T21:34:00.005-05:00

This is the last picture I got from my Halloween Party night.
I have my camera back :)

My pledge dad found it, I'm soooo relieved and happy.

I'm still overwhelmed with work though. Just thought I'd spread the good news about the camera. I now officially have all my things back from the Halloween party. More good news? I wasn't the one that puked on the floor and left it, so I don't feel like as much of an asshole now. Apparently I just puked in a trash can and went to sleep. This other guy hurled aaaaall over the carpet and because I woke up there I thought it was me.

So, whew!

Time to work.

Never thought I'd be so glad for a Tuesday.

2008-10-28T10:50:00.003-05:00

Monday is overrr!

No one was mad at me, yay! Thats good news. I wasn't sure what to expect but I just got a few "how are you feeling"s and "haha, you passed out at 11". Thats what I was hoping for so yay. Midterm for the frat is over! Overrr! Two weeks to get interviews done, oh joy of joys. I'm just going to convince some people to go with me to do them in groups. Its way easier that way. I can do it I swear.

Mom and dad are coming this weekend for Dad's weekend which is just going to be beer, bags, and a cookout I think. Not bad. Also, theres a possible trip out to the orchard! Apples, yay! In other news I think I might make pumpkin bread tonight. I wish I had powdered sugar for the top but no such luck right now. Maybe I'll run out and get some. Or wait until tomorrow to get some and then make it tomorrow when I'm feeling less lazy. Point is, really, that I enjoy pumpkin flavored things ENTIRELY too much. I thought I was going to die watching the food networ, yesterday. Seriously. Pumpkin everything and it all looked soooooo good. Its a sick obsession I have, really.

I'm getting the itch to bake and christmas shop too. This really is my favorite time of year, ahh. I really need to get my baking sheet back from the neighbors though... and my salsa... and my plate... and my roommate's cheese. And give them back their ice tray. Clearly we're all awesome at keeping track of our stuff. Which reminds me that my camera is still missing somewhere in the frat house. I know its there unless someone stole it but I'm pretty sure its upstairs somewhere where party guests weren't allowed to go so thats not really probable. Its probably under some furniture or something. Hopefully it'll turn up. I've told them its missing and they said they'd keep an eye out for it. I got everything else back though... my shoes, the ivy, the wig.. All pictured above. Oh camera, where are youuuu??? :(

My parents will kill me if I lose it. I will kill me if I lose it. I paid good, good money for that camera and I love it. I'm sure its there. Some of the guys told me they always lose stuff at the house but it always turns up and I told my pledge dad and she said she'd look for me and let people know. Ohhh I hope its there.

Shitty Weekend Update

2008-10-26T23:10:00.003-05:00

So, pretty much a crap weekend, but hey, everyone has one once in awhile. I was on a roll of good times for awhile so one was bound to suck. I guess it was this weekend.

Friday night was the Halloween party at the frat. Bad bad bad. It was fun at first, setting up was great. The pledge room was decorated in a superhero theme, we made a great group of hero's and villains. I did joker make-up for one of the guys and it turned out so cool! It started off with around the world shots which was just not a good idea. None of them were straight shots, they were all mixed drink shots so I guess I just wasn't paying attention to how much I was drinking. I felt it, I knew I was drunk so I stopped drinking, trying to be responsible. Unfortunately, what I wasn't prepared for was how it all hit me very suddenly. Before i knew it, without drinking anymore, I was puking. On the floor of the pledge room.

I guess if I had a room I had to puke in that was not a bathroom, that had to be the best one. Its no one's bedroom and its not a main room thats used everyday, but still, how embarrassing! I'm so ashamed of myself for not paying better attention. I'm usually better than that. I made sure I ate before I went and made sure to cut myself off and still. Ugh. And to make matters worse, I left a bunch of my stuff there like my camera, my wig from my costume, my heels (I'd worn other shoes there), and some of my own decorations. I managed to get myself together and leave by 7am and everyone was supposed to clean up at 11am, but I slept through it so I felt all the guiltier. I have to go over there tomorrow for education night and a test, and I'm worried about what they'll say/do. I mean, last time I got sick anywhere (and its only happened one time otherwise), I was told "No big deal, don't worry, it happens to everyone!" but you just don't know what you're going to hear from one group of people to the next. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprsied, but who knows. All I can do is apologize and offer any additional cleanup and whatnot. I just really want my stuff back.

So anyway, Saturday sucked. I was hungover for awhile, but not too bad. I ate and went over to watch my high school marching band compete at the Illini Marching Band Festival. I got to hang out with some of them, it was fun, then I went back home and was just down in the dumps all night for no good reason. Probably alcohol mixed with things mixed with seeing high school friends mixed with all of the shit from earlier in the semester catching up with me. So I just cried like all evening on and off. Got nothing done like I had wanted to.

Same deal with today minus the hangover and the crying. Got nothing done. Well, not entirely. I made the effort to get to the computer lab to do the assignment that I couldn't do on my mac. Found out quickly that I had no clue how to do it. None. Stared at it for awhile, bullshitted what I could and left the rest, turned it in (it was due by 5pm regardless) and moped all the way to Walgreens since I had earlier found out the hard way that my milk was spoiled. Ew. Now its nearly midnight. I need to clean up before my roommate comes home tomorrow, do laundry and study and I know that its not going to get done. Ughhhh! I want this week to be overrr. Done. Finito. Which just reminded me of the Italian homework I forgot to do, shit. And to top it all off I wanted to bake cookies but my baking sheet is still at the neighbors.

I'm ready for this week to just start. I want this weekend to be behind me. More importantly I want tomorrow to be over. I want to find out if I'm in trouble or not, take my test, and move on.

4 More Weeks!

2008-10-24T12:11:00.003-05:00

4 weeks until Thanksgiving break! I know its pretty much a month, but it doesn't feel like a long time for some reason! I'm so excited to be able to go home for a whole week :)

I had a lot of work to do earlier in the week but tried to balance it out with some fun things like taco night at the neighbors and country night at Kams. Its calmed down now so I'm glad. Tomorrow night is a halloween party, so I'll probably just stay in tonight and clean my apartment and study. Same with Sunday. Then next weekend is Dad's weekend so my dad is coming down and we'll probably go to some tailgates and theres a cookout at the house, so that'll be fun.

After that its just a little more work and then I can come home and relax! Yay! Only a few more things to get done today then I can relax and curl up on the couch and watch movies, yay!

40 sketchs... at least it isn't 50.

2008-10-20T22:45:00.002-05:00

I'm looooosing my mind.

40 sketches. By tomorrow.

Obviously I've already decided that I'm not going to do them all. Theres just no way. I also need to finish 50 italian phrases and start the rough draft of a paper thats due on wednesday. Fuckkkk my life right now.

Theres also a little spider crawling up the wall... but I'm not going to kill him because he's kind of cute. Unless he jumps on me. Then he's dead.

I also just walked all over campus with my pledge class to view all of the historical architecture at the university.. which is basically everything, so I'm pooped.

Pooped and needing to sketch.

Hungry too.

And cold.

Arrrrgh. I just want to sleep.
Curse my laziness!

Exhale.

2008-10-15T15:22:00.003-05:00

Today was a good day :)

Sure, it poured rain on me, but for once I remembered by umbrella. I realize that sounds like a pretty analogy for something, but its not. It literally poured rain and I usually forget my umbrella. Anyway, my midterms are done for now, its over half way through the week, I'm going home this weekend, and I just got an email saying that I got an extension on my project.

That e-mail made my day, because I'm trying to work with photography on this project and its hard to take pictures when its pouring rain outside. Sure, I took some fun rainy pictures and I might go out and take a few more but for now I'm glad, because then I can take the rest of my pictures how I like them. I really like photography and am kind of playing with the idea of going into that field too... its really fun, the things you can do with it and I sometimes find myself wandering around, looking at things, and thinking how it would look as a photo. We'll see, the world is my oyster.

Yesterday was pretty good too, despite the stress of studying and thinking that I had a day and a half to do my art project. My roommate and I took a trip out to Target to get curtains and throw pillows. Now the apartment feels more like home :) Its very cute, its amazing what a few accents can do to a room. I want to go snuggle in my pillows right now. Then, after that we made a trip to the mall and went to Forever 21 which was a horrible idea for both of us because we have shopping problems but both had good self control and only bought one thing each haha.

Then theres this adorable store at Market Place Mall called 'Lucky Puppy' that has little dog clothes (which I hate, I feel bad for dogs in sweaters haha), but they also sell a few puppies. So we went in, my roommate knows that my dog was put down last month, so she was patient while I fawned over this tiny little teacup chihuahua that I almost put in my purse and stole. It had to have been the cutest thing I've ever seen and it was so cuddly I could hardly stand it. I think it almost licked my face off :) It makes me sad to see little puppies, but at the same time its good therapy and its prepping me for when we get a new dog or dogs in the spring.

After that we went home and ordered chinese and bummed around watching TV and then it got down to studying time. Tonight, I have nothing now that I got that extension on my project. I am downright giddy at the fact that I can lounge around and do nothing aside from writing out my rent check. Hooray!

2008-10-13T09:28:00.002-05:00

Is it winter break yet?

I mean really, I'm so busy like... all the time now its driving me crazy. Its making me regret getting involved with the frat and stuff. I mean, I've met some cool people but I have so much to do for it its borderline ridiculous. I don't know how they can expect us to do this much, its kind of annoying.

I'm skipping Italian again today which probably isn't the best idea, but I need at least a small break to get some work done, not that I'm actually getting anything done. I'm also skipping the frat education night tonight, sticking it to the man, you know? Yeah they want me to do all this stuff but my grades and my sanity are more important to me right now. I'm also debating on whether or not I want to go home this weekend. Its the only weekend I have free before Thanksgiving break, so if I don't go, that's it until then. I'm not really dying to go home or anything, but it would be nice to see if I could at least get a haircut and a Halloween costume, haha. Not to mention my roommate is having people down this weekend. I don't mind that at all, but with me gone she'd have the apartment to herself with them and my bedroom locks.

I guess that's it for now. It was quite the weekend and now its going to be quite the week. Sorry to everyone I drunk dialed this weekend, haha. I was out of control. Kinda funny, but out of control.

Scramble!

2008-10-08T10:05:00.002-05:00

I'm so glad that this week is almost over, I hate being busy haha.

I watched the debate with my roommate last night and I was disappointed by it. It just didn't feel like either one of the candidates answered any of the questions straight up. All the answers were really vague and I feel like I came out of it with nothing to go on. All they did was attack each other and give less than spectacular answers.

The most interesting part of the whole thing was watching the crowd. I kept hoping that I was going to catch someone nodding off but no luck. Sad, isn't it? We just ended up cracking jokes the whole time. I haaaaate politics. Seriously.

In other news, we have two weeks to find two more roommates otherwise we can't re-lease our apartment next year, which would suck. I was going to live in the frat house, but it seems that a lot of people are worried about it already being filled up and I can see that. There aren't that many rooms and our pledge class is big and there are people coming back from France that are going to want to stay and it seems like a lot of the people already there want to stay there so I really need to get on the ball with apartment hunting then. I didn't think it would be like that :(

At the very least my roommate and I can live together again in a different apartment. I'm hoping we can find two people, though, because I love my apartment.

I'm a Busy Little Bee!

2008-10-06T21:40:00.002-05:00

So, after a nice relaxing weekend at home, its back to work and its balls to the wall this week!

I had another Italian speech today and I'm a little worried about how I'm going to do since my professor rushed me and I feel like she'd be the type to take off points even though its her fault I messed up. I dunno... we'll see. If she gives me a bad grade I'll probably argue it.

Tomorrow is my computer science midterm and I'm screwed haha. I don't pay attention in that class as it is, but if I study all night tonight I should be ok. I have another project to start for design. This professor is nuts, having us work on two projects at once but I'm almost finished with the first and I've started on the second so I'm actually on track (yay!). Wednesday, the fraternity is having a lock in, which will be fun, but I have my Italian midterm Thursday morning at 9.

I had another education night at the fraternity tonight, but it was fun. I like my pledge class, we're all pretty funny people, so it works. I'm trying to con some of them into being roommates with me next year and I'm trying to get them to come to my apartment because I love it so much.

Chris is coming down this weekend which is going to be super. When friends come to visit it makes the weekends a bit easier to get through so we'll have fun. I don't know if he needs to stay with me but I should probably find out. I don't think my roommate will care, though, which is nice. I like her :) I'm going to try to convince her to stay with me next year too, that would be fun. I was worried that we wouldn't get along or that we'd just like avoid eachother all the time but we don't. We sit around and watch TV together a lot and we do homework together. She made me brownies because I was stressed, it was nice.

Next week I only have one midterm, which is nice, but I have papers that I need to work on and somehow I've been like.. elected leader of the pledge class. Unofficially, though, because there is no leader, but I'm the one who is trying to plan everything and stuff which is really strange because I'm usually the one who takes a back seat and lets others do the planning. Role reversal, woah! I got one of my pledge brothers to buy me some caffinated things, so I'm ready for a long night of studying. I haven't even eaten dinner yet. I think the most I've eaten today were some fruit snacks, two granola bars, and a cookie. Obviously I'm feeding myself well here, haha. I just got groceries though, so I'll make myself something nice. I've discovered that I'm talented with shake n bake and my sloppy joes were ok.

So time to stop wasting time and go eat and study and work! Time to be productive(ish).

I Survived.

2008-09-30T19:59:00.003-05:00

The weekend was phenomenal, plain and simple.

Sure, I wasn't sober for the majority, but I got reasonably drunk, didn't go overboard, and had a good time with everyone. Siri's party at Joe's was great, I had fun getting dressed up and going out. My friends are great and we got Claire drunk, FINALLY. It happened.

My apartment was the hangout for most of it, but that's fine. Its all cleaned up now and no one puked in it which is nice. Sure there were some unexpected things, but hey, that's part of the fun. That, and the fact that there were guests meant that I got to eat at yummy restaurants... Yum, Za's and FlatTop! Soooo delicious.

Of course, despite the fun weekend its back to work this week. Lots of work, actually. I have 50+ sketches to do for my design class for Thursday... A day and a half is not enough for that. I have an Italian speech to prepare for, a quiz on Thursday, midterms are next week and I have studying to do for my pledge education nights at the fraternity, so needless to say I'm a bit frantic right now. I don't recall ever being this busy with school things before and I know its only going to get worse from here so I just have to buckle down and do it.

Its times like these that I wish that I wasn't such a horrible procrastinator.

Preparing for Weekend Madness

2008-09-26T11:24:00.003-05:00

There are people coming from out of town this weekend, and I'm super excited. Yes, Claire and Evelyn are coming, hooray!

A friend of mine, Siri, celebrated her 19th birthday last weekend but went home to spend it with her family. 19 is an important birthday here. Why? Because in Champaign, you can get into the bars when you turn 19. So this weekend is dedicated to being absolutely ridiculous in and out of bars. Poor Claire is a novice drinker, has never gotten really drunk before. We're hoping by the end of the weekend she'll be a pro.

I'm in Computer Science again, obviously not paying attention. Some of you may say 'Katie, you should really pay attention in class' and to you I say, simply, 'No'. Its too boring. Only one more class after this and its officially the weekend! I'll be getting lunch with my pledge dad and then finishing some homework and cleaning my apartment in preparation for this glorious weekend.

I'll post again in a few days to detail the aftermath.
Wish me luck! [or at the very least, a mild hangover]

Eight Legged Freaks

2008-09-25T00:58:00.002-05:00

So, computer is back, computer is fixed, life is good.

Oh, except for the part where I'm ridiculously busy. I finally finished my design project and after printing it out two separate times, have gotten the colors to print as good as they are going to be. They didn't come out as vibrant as I had hoped but I'm not willing to spend more money to screw with it any more. Of course, after I printed it, I realized that I had forgotten to buy matte board, so crap, tomorrow I have to run and get some in between classes.

My italian professor got mad at us today because apparently we're not learning as fast as she'd hoped and since she sucks she decided to make us list 50 new vocabulary words/verbs we've learned so far this semester and using those words, write 10 phrases. Its frustrating, because me and a few other girls are keeping up just fine but 4 out of 7 basically suck so its getting taken out on all of us. Its a waste of my time since I'm not the one having problems.

Wrote a paper tonight, but at least that was relatively easy. Of course, the catch here is it was supposed to have been turned in on Monday. Oops.

Anyway, in non-academic news there are drunk people shouting outside my window. I swear if they throw anything, I'll kill them. Its a Wednesday night, people, study and go to bed. If it keeps up like this, I will ruin every single party/loud drunk night they have by calling the nonemergency police number and repeatedly filing noise complaints. Maybe that will shut them up.

Also, according to my roommate, there was a gigantic jumping spider in our apartment today. It scared her so badly she ran out of the apartment and went to the neighbors to get them to kill it. None of them were home so she asked one of the maintenance guys to do it. I guess the sheer size of it freaked him out too, but its now dead. I wasn't home when that happened, thank God, but now I keep looking around my room and checking it for spiders before I go to bed. Ugh, ew.

Alright, one last bug patrol and I'm off to bed.
Buona notte.

[Since I'm all Italian'd up now.]

Still Without Internet.

2008-09-22T14:05:00.002-05:00

It sucks how much we depend on computers nowadays.

I've been without internet at my apartment for a grand total of 5 days and its driving me nuts. Its annoying to have to trek to a campus wireless area every time I have to check my e-mail, which nowadays is pretty often. I get emails from TAs, clubs, the fraternity that I'm now a pledge of (Alpha Rho Chi, the professional art & architecture co ed frat), and various other people and places.

I have assignments that I have to do online as well and its difficult to find a quiet place on campus to get them done. That's what my apartment is for. My roommate and I have totally different schedules [or one of us is usually napping] so the apartment is usually pretty quiet. That's why I like getting all my work done there. I'm getting a part of my laptop replaced on Friday [really glad I went with the extended warranty on this one] and today I'm having another part replaced, so I guess I'll see if they have any other temporary solutions.

Everything is online these days, whyyy? Its usually convenient, thats why, but once it stops working, you're screwed. Damn.

In other news, my cold is almost gone, yay. My roommate still sounds awful, though. We're both sleeping all the time, its pathetic.

Oh awesome, and now I've just remembered that they are sealing our countertops today so its going to smell awful when I get home. Ewwwww, noooooooo! :(

Well, I guess that gives me incentive to stay out here and do work instead of going home to a crappy smelling aparment. The semester is almost 1/3 done now, wow! Time flies, even though I've only been in class for like a month... Oh well, that just means I'm that much closer to catching a break, yes! Theres one thing I miss about high school... occasionally, we'd get a day off. I miss institute days!!! The only day I had off this semester already passed and that was labor day. I remember back in middle school there was always that question of whether or not we'd get columbus day off. No questions in college, we don't get it off, haha, no way!

And here I thought that it was good when things were certain. Pffft.

Someday, it will all work.

2008-09-19T11:05:00.003-05:00

So, one of these days I'm convinced that everything in my apartment is going to be up and running. Of course, right now if its not one thing, its another but I'm convinced that once everything is done, it will all work.

Of course, now my laptop is being a royal piece of crap and the internet refuses to work with the apartment's ethernet, but I guess I'm not the only one. My neighbors are having trouble and my roommate's went down yesterday. Still I'm convinced that there's also a problem with my computer so I'm taking it in to the Apple store on Green St. today and hopefully they can fix it, otherwise screw it I'm getting a wireless router a la my brother's suggestion and since he's all computer savvy I'm gonna go ahead and trust him.

So where am I writing from today? I'm in my computer science lab. Obviously I don't like computer science so I'm not going to be paying any attention whatsoever and we're in a computer lab, so bonus.

Anyway, speaking of my neighbor's, they really are ruiners of plans. Honestly. Last night I had it all planned out that I was going to stay in, get caught up on cleaning in my apartment and do some laundry. I was ironing and watching 'When Harry Met Sally' and as usual they come knockin on my door and tell me I have five minutes to get ready because we're going to Joe's. So I went. Whatever. I'm never going to get over this cold if I continue to go out and scream at bars but it was a good time.. and they're 21 so they get me drinks and because I was the only girl with them that night and we knew the guy at the door, no cover and they bought all my drinks.

Despite the bar being fun, the best part was afterwards when we got back to their apartment. We stopped by my place and rounded up my roommate and ordered a pizza and went back to their place to wait for that. I finally got my cup back that had been there for like 2 weeks and for some reason, the boys wanted to watch Noggin. What was on Noggin? Gullah Gullah Island. Anyone remember that? I swear to god I've never seen a group of 19-21 year old guys go more apeshit over ANYTHING. It was hysterical. Then they started singing all the theme songs from all these old shows, like Arthur and stuff and named off all the teams from Legends of the Hidden Temple. Wow. Those are my only words.

Now, I'm going to go and pretend like I care about computer science and pay a little bit of attention... maybe.

Mamma Mia!

2008-09-17T00:10:00.002-05:00

Current Score:
Italian - 1
Katie - 0

Every time I ran through it at home, my speech was pretty good. It wasn't great, but it was passable for the first 3-5 minute speech I've ever done completely in a foreign language. So going into class on Monday I was pretty confident. I was the last to go in our class of 7, so I had all class to run through it in my head.

Got up there and got as far as:
"Ciao, mi chiamo Katie e parleró della geografia fisica della regione di Calabria"
[Hi, my name is Katie and I will be talking about the physical geography of the region of Calabria.]

(^ See that? Thats your Italian lesson for today, haha.)

Then I blanked out, haha. Whoops! The rest of it was just a stringing together of random phrases that was kind of about geography. Oh well. At least I wasn't the worst. One poor girl got asked to re-do her speech the next day.

In other news, I'm going through one of my headache marathons again. It happens every once in awhile where I'll have had no migranes for awhile and then all of the sudden BAM. So, I had a good two months, one here or there but this week? I've had three in the past two days. One yesterday morning, one this morning, and one this evening. Soooo uncomfortable. That and they make me tired. As long as I have no repeats of my ER visit last year, we'll be good.

Now I'm going to stay up nice and late because I'm hyped up from headache medicine.

Drip, Drip, Drop Little April Shower

2008-09-14T14:37:00.002-05:00

Beating a tune as you fall all around.

Bambi, anyone?

This morning I woke up to some dripping and dropping. The remnants of Hurricane Ike had arrived bringing with it torrential rain and pretty high winds. At 8 in the morning, I was tired and didn't think anything of it and rolled over and went back to sleep. I woke up again around 10 and decided it was probably a good idea to get up. As I came into the living area.. I knew something wasn't right. I knew how rain sounded so I started to check around. Sure enough, my ceiling was leaking in the corner, so I wiped up the water that had accumulated and stuck a pot under the drip.

But wait, there's more!

Not only that, but in the fourth bedroom, which is vacant, there were two more leaks, both much worse. The carpet in the room was saturated and it was just bad. I stuck bins under those leaks and found a fan to turn on to try to dry out the carpet. I called maintenance and talked to some snooty woman who said she'd tell the workers but they couldn't do anything until the rain stopped. So now, three hours later, its stopped raining for awhile but still no maintenance men. I guess they're busy working on other stuff, so its no big deal. Since its stopped raining its not dripping nearly as much so I'm not too worried anymore.

Nasty cold + Leaky roof = A very annoyed Katie.

But hey, what happens happens. Gotta count my blessings, at least no one peed off the balcony last night. At least, not that I noticed. So I guess that's a good thing.. and I only got one knock on the door. So after a hectic morning its time for more work. A small paper and a speech in Italian paired with some laundry and I need to wash the dishes. I should probably vacuum too.. maybe break out the swiffer. Aren't I just Susie homemaker?

You Know its the Weekend When...

2008-09-13T00:52:00.002-05:00

Let me describe to you the joys of living in an apartment complex of mostly men. The corner of my apartment has floor to ceiling windows. There's an outdoor walkway connected to one side of that and when they all inevitably get drunk on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday [and other various days of the week], they like to mosey on down the walkway and pee off the balcony while I'm sitting watching what not to wear and baking cookies. Needless to say, I got more than one eyeful last night. The funny thing is, is that after they're done, they come to my door and ask me if I saw them and then apologize and tell me to come out and party with them.

I'm obviously not adverse to partying [example: Last weekend when I was carried out unconscious from my neighbor's apartment because I'd had waaay too many shots], but they convinced me to go to the bars on Thursday night, and now I'm tired and I am currently a little bit bitter about the partying scene. Two nights ago, after I'd gone to bed my roommate came home and turned on the hall light. Result? The guys in the apartment complex behind us who were partying on their balcony saw her through her bedroom window, threw a paint can and broke the window. Needless to say she called the cops on their asses and they have a nice police report filed against them and we have a shiny new window. Looove it.

So anyway, I now have a raging cold. I spent all of today laying on the couch and watching movies. Well, at least its a good weekend to be sick. I mean, really, its been raining a shit ton, so I wouldn't have gone anywhere anyway. Woo hoo! Heres to hoping I don't get more balcony guests tonight peeing and banging on my windows.

College Living... Don't be Jealous.

2008-09-10T13:28:00.002-05:00

So I'd like to start this off by saying hey, whats up, this is my blog. I'm Katie, a sophomore at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. That's all you really get to know. Well, ok, I'm an art major. There, nothing else.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet for now, I mean, class is starting relatively soon so I can't babble on and on about whats going on in my life right now. So I guess... I guess I'll start off with a story about how apartment living was, in one fell swoop, reduced to the level of dorm living last night. Now, I like my roommate fine, she's a nice girl, but our doors do not block as much sound as the realtors said they do. In fact, I'm pretty sure they amplify sound.

Now, I'd gone to bed at a reasonable time for me, around 12:30am. I had a 9am class in the morning so I figured it would be a good idea to take some medicine and sleep in an effort to fend off the cold that was starting to emerge. Seriously, I have the immune system of an infant. 3 weeks of class and I'm already sniffling and have a sore throat, its pathetic. My roommate was out at the bars as she doesn't have class early on Wednesday and whatever, that's fine, its her deal and its not like we share a room so I figured she wouldn't wake me up when she came home.

Oh boy, was I ever wrong.

She came in around 2:30am, talking to some guy. Neither was obnoxiously drunk, but they were definitely not sober. She wasn't being loud, but for some reason it woke me up. I guess my spidey sense that someone was about to come annoy me was tingling and woke me up to prepare me for what was about to happen. When I heard her say his name, I realized that it was our neighbor, whose apartment I had gotten embarrassingly drunk in and passed out in the previous weekened. Obviously, that meant we were BFFs, even though I don't remember a whole lot [though I soon found out he was the Big Black to my Rob]. I guess he'd been worried about me after I had been carried out of his apartment on Saturday and wanted to come and see me.

It was like slow motion. I could hear them walking to my room, he wondering if the closed door was mine and she saying that it was, but it might be locked. Well, it wasn't locked. Hearing the handle turn, I made a last ditch effort to pretend that I was still asleep so that they'd leave me alone. I mean, they weren't that drunk, right? Wrong. They started calling my name, my lights were flipped on and I was repeatedly tapped on the head with a bright orange frisbee that he'd picked up from my floor. Annoyed, I finally got up. My roommate informed me that she'd brought my Big Black to me and he expressed his happiness that I survived the weekend after passing out in his bathroom, then proceeded to ask me if I wanted to go play beer pong at his place that very second. Um, no, I don't. Its Tuesday night at 2:30 in the morning.

He pressed the invitation for a few minutes before giving up, petting my hair awkwardly and telling me to come to his place on Friday to party.

And then he took my frisbee.