Travels

I am traveling a lot of miles over this Christmas break. It's ridiculous!
Right now, I am in Michigan with my sister.
And, woohoo, it's snowing!!
And, double woohoo, we are about to get my new car!!


I will post a photo when I get one. It was great to do gifts with Kayla last night in the hotel room. Unconventional Christmas seems to be a theme this year in the lives of our friends.


So here's my travel break down:
Marion, IN to Libertyville, IL (214 miles)
Libertyville, IL to La Crosse, WI (244 miles)
La Crosse, WI to Libertyville, IL (244 miles)
Libertyville, IL to Gaylord, MI (386 miles)
Gaylord, MI to Libertyville, IL (386 miles)
Libertyville, IL to O'Hare International Airport (26 miles)
O'Hare International Airport to Santo Domingo (about 1930 miles)
We will be traveling to and from work sites all week, so (about 100 miles)
Santo Domingo to O'hare International Airport (1930 miles)
O'Hare International Airport to Libertyville, IL (26 miles)
Libertyville, IL to Marion, IN (214 miles)


By the end of this break, I will have traveled about 5,700 miles. That is a lot of travel!
I'm really bad at taking photos when I should, so I apologize for not having more.

Christmas Plans

* None of the photos in this post belong to me. *


Wonderful things are happening this Christmas break.
I've been home this week and it has been wonderful!
I spent Tuesday in Chicago with Kate. She is the photographer and I hope to see photos up soon on her blog. I'll post the link to her blog when she writes about Chicago.
I love that city. It's the best one in the US and you can't make me believe any differently.


We took the train, walked around beautiful and overpriced shops with amazing Christmas displays. We walked by the Macy's windows that tell a story but we went in reverse so the story didn't really make sense. Oops.


Then we walked to Millenium park and made up stories about the ice skaters. They were elaborate and awesome. The man next to us was hardcore judging (I could feel it in my peripheral vision) but we were having fun. We had lunch at Panera just across the street. They had an awesome set up for getting people their food which sounds silly but it was really great! I notice those things, so sue me. This photo was taken from about where we were standing, so you get the gist. 


After lunch we walked one way and then decided to try another way because we were in the city and sometimes people do that. We went to Garrets and grabbed popcorn because that's what happens in that place. They were crazy busy! We walked a little more and decided we were done with the city.


We waited at Union for about 50 minutes (we had just missed a train when we showed up) and drank large sodas from the McDonald's upstairs. I can't imagine working at that place! People are in such a rush to catch a train or get to work you have to be super fast! It's the elite McDonald's in my mind. I have missed my friend and the day in Chicago was a super way to be reunited.


We were a little sleepy on the train but we were both scared to really sleep in case we missed our stop. Kate's sister picked us up at the station in town and we chilled at her house for a little while. It was really nice. I haven't been there in a while because I've been at school. I can't estimate how long I've spent there over the years.


Then, we got Chipotle and made fun of America's Next Top Model for hours. She's the only one who thinks the show is as funny as I think it is. It's a comedy not a drama. Seriously, Tyra Banks is a comedian who has no idea people are laughing at her. To the right with the flowers is Laura Kirkpatrick, who was my favorite competitor this season. She is so sweet and can be really versatile. Her grandma makes a lot of her clothes and they are not dowdy at all. Laura is down to earth and pushes through in every challenge she faces. I like Laura. 
Then there's Allison Harvard. She is so unique! Her eyes are creepy but beautiful and you want to look away but you can't. She's quirky and doesn't mind being outside the box. 



To the left is her Covergirl shot. I thought they didn't do enough to showcase her unique beauty. The next photo is a still shot from her music video. That episode was an ANTM classic. 

See? Creepy but great. 

Finally, we decided smoothies were a great idea. Turns out, Robek's and other smoothie spots close at 8PM. Were people unaware of late night smoothie cravings are a major issue? We settled for 7-11 slurpees and they quenched the thirst.
It was a great day with a perfect ending. Wonderful! 
---


In the next 2 weeks, I will be in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, the Dominican Republic, and Indiana.
CRAZY!

Christmas Time

"Christmas time is here" sang the Peanut Gallery. What wonderful children. Linus' reading of Scripture gets me every time. I haven't watched the Charlie Brown Christmas movie yet this season. Perhaps we will watch it at my aunt's house this year because my nephews are pretty young and they somehow it seems slightly more socially acceptable to watch that movie when kids are around.


Tonight was perfect for the Christmas season. We went to church and sang Christmas songs, then I grabbed coffee with friends home from college. My dad and I shopped for Christmas presents and groceries (which isn't really that Christmas-y). We came home and made Christmas cookies and peanut butter kiss cookies while my mom wrapped presents. And now (again, not really that Christmas-y) we are watching the Blackhawks game.


Perfect!

Maximus puts up with a lot from me. This was last night. 

Christmas Tree!!

Look at that face. I love this dog. 

Here are some photos of our cookies!

























 When I became frustrated with our selection of cookie cutters, I took some creative liberty with shapes. They included a snowman, Rudolph, the letter "G", an igloo and a present. It was pretty great.













I apologize for the wacky placing of these photos. I can never get them to go where I want them to go. I guess it creates visual interest!

Finally Finished

That's right, readers. I have completed my first semester of college. Yay!
It feels great to be finished.
Today, I glanced at my backpack and thought "Oh Peeshaw. I don't have to feel guilty that I haven't opened you to view your contents because I have no academic work to be done!"
Okay, okay, so I embellished my thoughts a little but the sentiment remains the same.
I have no academic work required of me for a few weeks and that is wonderful.
I can read for FUN! Yay reading!


Near school, there is this wonderful place called "The Unorganized Book Store" which lives up to its name. Paper back books are $1 and hard cover books are $2. They also have CDs and DVDs but I'm almost sure it's run entirely on donated books. It's small and wonderful and the outside is brightly painted.
Several weeks ago, I was there and picked up Tree Surgery for Beginners by Patrick Gale. I read the inside flap but refuse to find out any more information about it. That, in my world, is pretty daring. What can I say, I live on the edge. When I watch movies, I always use imdb.com to look up the tagline, the stars, summaries, and whatever else so I know what the general plot is before watching it. I'm not sure why I do it. Maybe it's so I don't have to pay as much attention to the movie. After I finish a movie, I always look up the trivia and goofs back on imdb.com. Seriously readers, I'm a party animal.


I like to read books before I watch their movie counterparts but sometimes I am unaware there was a book or don't have the time/patience to read it before seeing the movie.
Anyway, I am not looking into the plot of this book before I read it. That being said, if it ends up being terrible or ridiculously inappropriate, I'm sorry. This is not a recommendation but rather a notice I will be reading it over break.
I have missed reading for fun. It's going to be great.


In other news, I am completely finished with my Christmas shopping. I think :-/
Most of the gifts are already wrapped!
So Yeah.


I packed WAY too much to come home. It's a genetic mutation I believe. When I was putting everything in my car, I could do it over several trips and space it out when I had time. Going back to school it's not quite the same. I have to pull up my car, unload in the lobby (and swipe my ID every time to open the stupid door) then go park my car somewhere, come back and haul everything up 3 floors. Isn't life difficult being able bodied and blessed with more than I need?


I've covered books and movies, so now it's time for music.
I have had a draft of a post sitting in the draft folder for more than a month about music. The music I listen to is so meaningful to me. I have a HUGE selection in my iTunes account (10.2 days worth of music, or 24.51 GB for those of you who speak that language) and that is a lot. The vast selection is awesome because if I feel like jamming out, being sad, crying over a sappy love song, reminding myself of my childhood, or dancing around like an idiot, I can do that with a few clicks. As much as I love all of my photos, I would be devastated if I lost all of my music.
Because my music is so close to my heart, I would feel like I'm giving away a piece of me to share my favorite band/song with you.
Have you ever been really into a show and then the person you talk about it to hates it? Or maybe someone tells you your favorite movie is bad? Ouch. The same logic applies with music.
Rather than give you my FAVORITE stuff, I'll let you peek into what I'm listening to right now.


I haven't heard much of The Script, but what I have heard I really liked.
The song For the First Time seems very genuine and honest. I really dig his voice. I hope to hear more from them.


When I was little, we used to listen to country in my house and in the car. We still do! I have fond memories of the Judds (see the sisters and their amazing hair) belting out "Whoa whoa, Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days." The song will likely be with me forever. I can't estimate how many times we played that cassette. The other country song I've been thinking about, mostly because it's so fun to sing along with, is Blue by LeAnn Rimes from 1996. How wonderful is that video? She has redone the song with a quicker tempo but I dig the original.


That's life for now.

Finals and Christmas

Here's yet another thing I like about college- we have finals before Christmas break.
In high school, the schedule went something like this:

• Thanksgiving
• A few weeks back at school
• 2 week winter break
• Back for 1 week when all of our teachers said "Hey, remember that stuff I was teaching you for months that fell out of your brain in 2 weeks of relaxation? I'm about to test you on it! You should have spent your entire break studying instead of enjoying quality family time!"
• Finals week
• A long weekend (3 or 4 days depending on the year)
• 2nd semester!

As you can see, it was pretty stinky and I'm pretty bitter about it. But now, here's how college goes:

• A terrible teaser called Thanksgiving (we do not have the whole week off, but that's okay)
• 3 weeks back in class
• Finals week
• Almost a month of break that includes Christmas and New Years and, for me, the Dominican Republic
• 2nd semester starts.

Much better!! 

Speaking of finals week, I just finished my first college final. It was for SOC150 which I highly reccomend. I find the subject very interesting. Would I ever do that as my job? Probably not. Who knows?

Now I will finish writing up my study sheet for my noon final: UNV180. We get a sheet of paper to fill with whatever our heart desires. After that final, I'm grabbing lunch with Liz and then studying some more for tomorrow's finals: WRI282 and Speech. Also, I'm going to pack a little because I'm a slow packer. I have to bring back things for the DR too which means my trunk will be significantly heavier.


I can hardly wait to be home. Just a few more days! I get to see my family, my friends, my bed, my dog, and a bunch of other wonderful stuff. It's going to be great!!
I'm pretty excited about Christmas. Here's a photo I put together of other photos I stole from the Internet:

 Feel free to right click them and "Save As" and steal them because I certainly did with all the photos in these collages. I would give the owners credit if I knew who they were.
May I recommend you place these photos as your background? It's a great way to get into the Christmas spirit!

McConn, My College Love

Hey. Another post about coffee. Get ready.
I love this place.
I got the Hazelnut Bliss Latte. It was decent but I was too distracted by nothingness on the internet to enjoy it. I should have paid better attention to it because it was likely delicious.
Lucky for me, I still have points (like a campus debit card system) to spend AND double lucky, they roll over into next semester.
I need to return my books to the book store at some point.
That's happening tomorrow.


I'm already making a list of things I want to pack for home. I just want to be finished with this semester. It was, by no means, terrible. It was simply exhausting. But hey, reality check, it's over!
I just finished my last class of the semesters. Now just finals stand between me and home. And also, studying.


Now I'm drinking iced coffee. This may be an issue. I should just mainline coffee. It would likely be more expensive. And not as fun or social.
I am headed to the Dominican Republic very soon- 22 days. That's right, Math majors, I will be flying on New Years Day.
I want to see the people of Cielo, have sweat on my brow, blisters on my hands, and go to sleep every night knowing I've done good in the world.

Life Rolls On

My apologies, readers, for my lack of posts recently.
Several factors have contributed and here they are:
1. Finals week is next week (Monday through Wednesday) so classes have been hectic.
2. My grandpa is sick and family stress for all has been high.
3. Laziness.


I hope to keep writing over Christmas Break and I can't wait to gush about the Dominican Republic!
Enjoy your day!

Monday Night Dream

I had a really weird dream Monday night. I'm glad I still remember it because sometimes I don't but I know it was cool and that's frustrating. What if there was some way to draw things out of deep within your brain? Unfortunately, there's not. And if there was, it would probably be expensive and/or deeply unethical. Anyway, on to the dream!

I was at some kind of conference center so it was inside but there was tons of music and concerts going on. It was like indoor Lollapalooza. This band who I apparently loved was playing and for some reason, I was on stage right with one of those arm/boyfriend pillows behind me.


Some other girl joined me at one point too. I remember looking into the crowd and seeing lots of people who were all really excited about the song. After a song or two, the band said "Now Bethany is going to sing a cover for us!" and I was nervous but excited.


The lead singer suggested a song I knew well and I was excited about that.
I started to sing at the microphone nearest me and it was all going very well!
Then one of the guitarists stopped and said "Hey that's a guitar mic" but he couldn't get the voice microphone down low enough for me. (Darn my 5'2" frame!)
When he was adjusting it, it wasn't staying. The song is still playing at this point.
The guitarist suggests I go get a different mic stand that isn't so loosey goosey from his car.


This is the part where it seems illogical, if it didn't already.
It did? Never mind.
So his car is parked in the crowd! I take the keys and drive the car over the barrier for the crowd, up the stairs that lead to the stage, across the stage, down the stairs on the other side of the stage, and then outside. When I was outside, I checked the trunk and the microphone stand was there. I grabbed it and headed inside.
This crazy and completely unnecessary maneuvering of vehicles meant that when I got back to the stage, the song was over.
It was a bummer, let me tell you. At least I got to sing part of that lovely song with the band :)
Would you believe it, there's no photos online of a car in the crowd at a concert. So I drew my own! I have missed not having the "Paint" application on my Macbook, so I downloaded it from the Internet. I am a problem solver. Here's what I came up with:

So I guess I'll rule out an art major too...

Joy

Today is a good day. 

I'm all warm and toasty, just having finished a small hazelnut cafe latte. My compliments to the cute barista who drew a leaf on the top of it. Is it drawing? Sculpting? I'm not sure what the correct terminology is. 
This is not my photo, but it's the kind of thing he did. And it tasted great, so win win. 


I had a 7:50 Sociology class, as I do every Tuesday/Thursday and today people presented about their family structure and things like that. I was reminded of just how blessed I am to be apart of my family. I love them! This is the 4 of us at Kayla's wedding (in case you couldn't tell- isn't she beautiful?) Ben, Kayla's husband, is apart of our family too.


I have a cold (right before finals- cool, immune system) so last night I took some night time cold medicine. I ZONKED OUT an hour and a half after taking them. It was rather impressive. I still feel rather wonky but it's reasonable. 
I feel much better! 

I received a flyer in my mailbox for all the Christmas events happening on campus. One of them is Christmas stories read by the president of the university. How much do I love this place?! I love that we have a nativity scene in the student center. I love that every lobby of residence halls has a decorated Christmas tree. I love that I get to celebrate without pretending it's all about Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus. Everyone here gets excited about gingerbread houses and snowball fights, but we all know the greater reason for the season. It's wonderful. This is the tree in my lobby. Lovely! 


I also received in my mailbox a Christmas greeting from a family from my home church. It was a wonderful surprise and very considerate of them to think of me. Plus, I love getting letters! (Mom,) I already wrote them a thank you note. 


Remember when I was really excited about giving blood? It didn't go so well :(
I ended up with a huge bruise and not being able to give blood because it was going into me and not into the bag. It hurt at the time and now I have an insane bruise. Want to see it? 
I think you do. Sorry if you're squeamish. Pretend it's makeup! 
 

It's pretty gnarly. It looks worse than it feels which is a great quality about bruises. They make you look intense but they probably don't hurt that badly. The first and left oriented photo was taken Wednesday and the other two were taken today. It's starting to get yellow-y. Yuck. Anyway, let's move on.

You all know how much I love my dog. He's an awesome creature. When I was home over Thanksgiving, I took a few photos of him with my webcam and I would like to share them because he's so darn cute! I miss him a lot. 

As beautiful as his face is, I really like the bottom left photo. I don't know why he does that, but he hides his face like that sometimes. He's strange which is something I like about him a lot. 

I arranged these photos using "Collage Creator Lite" which is a free App for Macs, in case you are interested. It's very easy to use and if I had spent more than an minute (literally) I could have made something fairly sophisticated with it. I recommend it, and the "Lite" version is free. Who doesn't love that? 

Also, today is a great day because I've got great music. I've been listening to the album "Plans" by Death Cab for Cutie and the album "Simple Math" by Manchester Orchestra. The song "Summer Skin" by Death Cab is great for fall because it talks about summer ending and moving on. I love Andy Hull's voice and getting to see Manchester Orchestra live in Chicago with my best friend was such a blessing. 

The quality is somewhat low because the woman behind is was not exactly the world's most professional photographer. I had to mess with levels so you could see Andy Hull (dead center in the photo) which essentially means me running levers left and right until I get what I want. I really should have taken a photo class in high school. On the bright side (literally) check out our smiles! Perfect :)

Now begins the "Collection of Analysis" work for my Writing for Results course. I have to find 10 persuasive pieces of writing and then write a short (250-350 word) explanation of how their argument was structured. Seems easy enough! It means a lot of Googling controversial topics. Here I go!

ps- I know I've been slacking on the photos but this one makes up for it!