So Many Things!

About an hour ago, I thought "Hey I should write on my blog but I really only have to say that spring break is 1 week away."
HA!
I have a zillion things to say but I have class in half an hour. So here's to a stream of consciousness type post. Ready? OK!

First of all, McConn broke! I was there to witness it. My math class got out early today so I went with the girl  who sits next to me to McConn. After we ordered, one of the baristas asked "Does it smell like something is burning?" and it smelled like burnt coffee and rubber. Yuck. They are still making drinks but very slowly and the main machine is incapacitated. I feel so bad for it, like I should buy it a band aid for all the good times it has gotten me through. Just kidding. I did get coffee, but they're operating at like half speed. I would hate to see it at a busy time today. Hopefully it is fixed soon.

Second, the repair man looked a lot like Harvey from my summer at Clydehurst. Dr. Harvey Hartman who teaches at Liberty University insisted that everyone call him Harvey. All summer he fixed whatever needed fixing on camp grounds and was as sweet and humble as could be. His relationship with his wife, Chris, was an awesome example for all of us. She would ride on the back of his four-wheeler (aww) and he would wait for her to get in the lunch line (aww) and he would pour everyone's drinks at the table for staff meals (aww!). Seriously, the man is a great example of a Godly man. Not just his manners, but the way he spoke on Sundays and his true passion for this ministry. He is a very cool guy.

Third, I decided to wear lipstick today. I associate lipstick with old Hollywood glamour, Snow White, and  moms. My mom wears lipstick pretty much every day. She also drinks coffee pretty much every day and therefore every time she drinks coffee, there's a stain on the rim of the drink. It's strange what you become reminiscent of when you're gone from home! So today, I'm wearing lipstick and drinking coffee and I had a strange moment of "I'm 19!" and "I'm only 19!" It was a doublethink moment (anyone, literary reference?) of "Dang, I am OLD" and "What? I'm not an adult!"so that's happening in my world today.

Fourth, my friend Kate just cut her hair and it's super cute. I don't want mine that short, but I'm considering chopping it so it brushes my shoulders. I won't do it for a long time because this idea just came into my head and it takes me forever to decide about things like that.

Fifth, I feel like I don't have a ton going on this week which is great. Did I mention I go home on Friday for Spring Break? Woohoo! I'll be spending some time in Wisconsin with my grandparents and cousins and generally doing what needs to be done (errands, cleaning, loving, being awesome, the works) and then I'll be seeing "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Chicago. I prefer Shakespeare's tragedies to his comedies, but I'll take what I can get. I would like to see the art institute as well, but we'll see how much time I have. Other than that, spring break will be spent relaxing. Can you tell I'm excited? I haven't written anything down yet, but I have a packing list in my head. What's up, this is my life.

Sixth, people from my hometown church were on a mission trip to Mexico this past week. Yeah for serving God in radical ways! I want to get home so I can hear the awesome stories.

Okay all, happy Monday. Whew, 15 minute brain dump leaves 5 minutes for editing and 10 for getting to class.

Ups and Downs

Blogs about life can easily turn into blogs about how life sucks. Blogs about life can also turn into yet another place you have to put on a happy face and pretend that everything is alright. I strive to be somewhere in the middle- honest but optimistic. I think I'm fairly pragmatic, but it's a good habit to seek out the light in a situation. Have you ever seen/read "It's Kind of a Funny Story"? I have not read the book but I enjoyed the movie a lot. The topic of teen depression is handled in a really interesting way and people's reactions to Craig represent how friends really react to each other. Anyway, the word pragmatic is in that movie and I don't know that I had heard it before then. 


For example, I had written this detailed and wonderful post about the social anxiety I have been experiencing this semester. It was tasteful and wonderfully relatable (if I do say so myself). Unfortunately, the Internet in the student center didn't save and I clicked too quickly and lost the post. Internet boo.


I got a letter in the mail from my dad. Yay. That guy is great. Seriously. I realize the "World's Best Dad" paraphernalia is a little cliché, but it would fit perfectly. Lifelong Yay.
The barista in McConn crafted a dove on the top of my Cafe Latte with vanilla. Artistic yay. I highly recommend this drink as a stepping stone between "big people coffee" that is, the kind you brew at home if you are without one of those fancy K-Cup machines, and the "frilly frou frou" drinks like a half-caf no whip mocha soy venti latte. I also made that up, so for any of you who speak coffee, please correct my grammar. I understand that some people really do only drink soy- you are off my judgmental hook. 


I have a roommate for next year. Housing yay. It is raining outside but not the fun kind of rain that is my favorite weather. The soak your bones and then freeze them kind of cold rain. Freezing self boo. 
Spring break is still a week away boo but spring break is only a week away- yay!
See what I mean about life from 2 perspectives? 


I have exactly six hours and forty three minutes until the library closes. 
Yesterday, I sat here for a few hours and did (almost) all of my fine arts paper about the IMA (see previous post with lots of pretty pictures) and then read in the student center for two hours. 
Now, I am back here. I'm still trying to find a sweet spot of study habits. Is that normal? It's February, after all. There is one table in the student center where I usually stake out. I don't want to be "that one girl who always sits there" but it's like having my own office. People know where to find me and, maybe, when finals are rolling nearer, people will not be upset at me for taking that table because it's "my spot". Does that make sense?
Even if it doesn't make sense to you, I appreciate you letting me get it out. You're pretty great like that. 

Art Overload

On Saturday, I went to the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) with my suitemate Jessica. It was a really cool place but by the end of it all, I was exhausted. We got back to campus at 5:30 and I slept until 10:30 which was one of the worst sleepy decisions I have made in a long time. All day today I keep reminding myself that I am a real person in public and that this is real life. It's a strange state of reality today.
Anyway, I don't know how many of you are familiar with Instagram but I love it. You take photos with your camera phone and then put cool filters on them and upload them and then you look really artsy and cool. The photos that looks sweet have been "instagrammed" and the other ones are just normal photos. I have all the names of the pieces somewhere but I can't find them in the black hole that is my memory drive. 
Here's the photos I did take at the IMA:

My $4.50 pizza

Ear plugs from the Zulu people of South Africa

Made from covered telephone wire

Louisa Fletcher by Mary Shepherd Greene Blumenschien

 

Old Market Woman by William J. Forsyth

Tiffany Lamp

Girl Sweeping by William McGregor Paxton

Can you believe this is in an art museum?

Coffee history love

Somehow this isn't what I picture when people wanted John the Baptist's head on a plate 

The Peasant by Jules Dalou

The Day of Love

I do love the English language. I think the problem with it is that we don't have more than one word for love. That's a bummer. I don't have the stats on this, but I think that every other language has different words for love. I love the English language differently than I love my dog and differently than I love McConn and differently than I love my family. I think I've been down this ranting road before.

On this day that's all about love, here are a few things I love:

• Getting mail. Seriously. It's awesome. I got a package today from Kelly that was AWESOME. She's so generous and thoughtful and talented.

She drew me this picture and wrote me a note. She filled the package with candy (yay!), Silly Putty (which I've already made great use of in my class today to keep me focused) and glow stick straws which I have never heard of but sound insanely cool.

• Also, another thing I love is badminton. 

• I love gym teachers that are really cool like Miss Monken and Mrs. Fowkes. Seriously. They are awesome ladies. Mrs. Fowkes used to babysit Kayla and me and, because the Fowkes family has 4 boys, this is when I was first exposed to Star Wars.

• I love Star Wars! I own all 6 films, but have only seen the ones with Harrison Ford because I'm afraid the prequels will ruin the story I love. By the end of this semester, I will probably watch them all. 

•  love my Old Testament professor Dr. Wilbur Williams who dresses like Old Testament characters. Someone took this photo of him in class when he was Abraham. On Thursday, he is coming to class as David and he teaches the whole lecture in character. 

• I love friends who answer your questions without judgement. The other night I had a brain lapse and could not for the life of me think what language the ancient Romans spoke. I was reading for World Literature and could not think of it. Naturally, I asked Hannah. She's pretty awesome. She took insanely difficult classes in high school and then got into Vanderbilt. What a rock star!

• I love getting Valentines! The pink card is from my grandparents, the balloons are from my parents, as is the animal print bag full of candy hearts and the puppy card which was adorable to say the least. The striped box is from my roomie and the card with Anna Howard Shaw on it is from my suitie.

 

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Arizona Tea

Allow me to tell you a story. It goes like this-
Once upon a time, I had never tasted Arizona Tea. While at Walgreens with a friend, I discovered the multitude of flavors. Now I drink them whenever the opportunity presents itself and sometimes create the opportunity. The end.

On Sunday, I bought 2 AZs at Walgreens- one Mucho Mango and one diet Peach. The cans are brightly colored and big (24 oz.) and they are really sweet. Like I said, there are tons of flavors. I don't really care for the green tea kind, but I think that's the original. Because the cans are so cool and it's easy to drink a lot of AZ, people have made cool art projects out of them. Here's an example:

That flavor, unfortunately, is one I dislike.

This photo sort of defines my ideal summer. There are 2 in a car which means I'm with a friend, driving to go be silly and being silly along the way. Plus, those are 2 delicious flavors.
Another great thing about Arizona is that it's $0.99. Seriously. What's better than wonderful yet inexpensive things?

I know I'm a sentimental fool, but this picture makes my heart ache for home. Being 4 hours away is tougher than I thought. I usually try not to think about it, but Valentine's Day is coming up and while that holiday is primarily about significant others, I still see it as a day set specifically for remembering to tell people you love them.

I hope my parents don't mind me divulging a little bit about their Valentine's Day tradition. For a week leading up to the 14th, they exchange cards each day. I think an added bonus is that there's less pressure to pick 1 perfect card. When you have 7, you can do some funny and some serious.
I received a valentine from my parents and my grandparents. How sweet! Thanks!!

I did not watch the Grammy's (I pretty much never watch TV except occasional episodes online) but I did go through a "Best and Worst" thing online. Everyone on Facebook was liveblogging their opinions so I feel like I watched the whole show.

I recently got into Coldplay, who was nominated this year for 3 Grammy awards. They have been around for a long time and I've always liked their music, but have never given it particular attention. Their song "Fix You" in particular I'm digging right now. In the last 18 hours, I've listened to it 25 times. That's a lot for one song but it's also an awesome song. I think I'll buy more of their music soon.
As usual, I think you should go listen to this song. Here's the link. The video isn't essential to understanding or appreciating the song but it's cool to see the huge audience.

Music and tea make for a fairly reasonable Monday blog post, I believe.

A Day of Productivity

I like Thursday a whole lot more than I like Tuesday.

Both days I have a 9:25 world literature class. I enjoy that extra time to sleep in because last semester my latest start time was 8:55. Both days I have my Old Testament class at 1:40. Tuesday nights, I have fine arts from 6:15-9:15pm. I think our professor really does the best he can, but I usually end up in an extreme state of boredom. This is a let down because last semester I had a night class and it was awesome!

I have found that doing something repetitive and mindless helps me to stave off boredom and allows my brain to listen. This is the result of Tuesday's class:

Yeah. 

Fine arts is only once a week so on Thursdays, it feels like I have a lot more time to do the things I need to do. For example, here are some things I accomplished today. 

I did 2 loads of laundry but only one of them dried properly. That was bummer but I do have a drying rack. Right now, it's covered with jeans and sweaters and it will probably take another 24 hours for all of it to dry. That's ok, not a big setback. 

I use my laundry baskets to hold shoes or athletic wear when I'm not doing my laundry, so when my things are in the washer or dryer, the floor in my room is covered with the contents of the basket. The room is such a mess! Then, when everything is finished being washed and (kind of) dried, I put the clothes away AND clean my part of the room. Exciting stuff, I know. Anyway, now the room has been very much decluttered and it's nice to have clean things. 

I went in with my friend Lauren to look at our Old Testament tests from last week. We went to McConn afterwards (side note, found out I have a TON of points left. Woohoo!) and then went to class. Dr. Williams mentioned he would not be in class very soon because David would be there. That's right. David as in David & Goliath. I love that man. 

I ran an errand on campus for my friend Kelly who is a volleyball recruit for next year at IWU. I returned a sweatshirt to the bookstore for her dad and, per Mrs. Cypher's request, bought myself a t-shirt as a reward for being her personal shopper. 

Thanks Mrs. Cypher!

I found Coach Moats, the women's volleyball coach, and brought her the sweatshirt. She is going to Libertyville tomorrow for Kelly's official signing and Mrs. Cypher had been in contact with her about the spirit wear. I feel like I have made a great connection with her. She's my teacher for Concepts of Health and Wellness and is very cool. I'm glad Kelly is getting to play for her next year!

So here's what I accomplished:

1. Laundry
2. Clean room
3. Checking on my points
4. Errand for the Cypher family
5. Checking over my OT exam
6. Classes for the day

Unit dinner is in half an hour and then after that I will be doing some homework. Until then:

Birthday Celebration and Great Coffee

On Friday, I had a math test. As our good friend Liz Lemon from 30 Rock would say, “Blergh.” The positive side of it was that my class is at 8:55. Yes, that is the upside. I left right after the test to go home for the weekend. My afternoon history class was canceled so everything worked out perfectly.

            My dad’s birthday was the 4^th. I ran some birthday errands so my mom didn’t have to do them. No number exists for the number of times it has been necessary for her to remind me that her love language is “Acts of service, baby!” so I got the cake, a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling and chocolate icing, a Mylar birthday balloon, and birthday candles printed with zebra stripes, cheetah spots, or tiger stripes because we are party animals, of course.

            We always get our birthday cakes from Lovin’ Oven. If you live in Round Lake or Libertyville or can get yourself to those towns, you should do that. When we lived in Grayslake, the cakery (that’s what they print on their business cards) was close and the tradition stuck. After moving to Libertyville, we still drove to Round Lake to get the cakes for birthdays. My birthday is just a week and a half away from my dad’s, but my mom’s birthday is on October and Kayla’s is on August, so they’re spread far enough apart to be okay. A few years ago, another Lovin’ Oven was opened in Libertyville and the trip to Round Lake was no longer necessary.

            On Friday night, we went to Famous Dave’s for dinner. They have excellent ribs and corn muffins you could write songs about if you’re into that kind of thing. Saturday I slept in and took a nap and I have no regrets about that. We had Chicago style pizza and birthday cake and then Dad opened his presents and cards. Mom found a really cool Chicago Blackhawks jacket that’s almost like a Letterman style and she found it at TJMaxx. Perfect!

            I didn’t know I was coming home until the last minute, so my parents already had plans to go to a Groundhog’s Day party at their friend’s house. That worked out well because I wanted to spend some time with Kate. We hit Target, the mall, and Starbucks. I do love McConn, but there’s something about the Starbucks atmosphere. While we were at Target, we decided to go see “The Woman in Black” which is a new movie that Daniel Radcliff is in. He did a play in England and was on Broadway, but this is his first movie role since the Harry Potter series ended. I like him as an actor and want to support his career, as well as the other stars of those movies, so we made plans to go see it. It’s rated PG-13 but I knew it was a horror movie. I had never seen a horror movie ever in my whole life. Not in theatres, not at anyone’s house. We drove around town (did I already mention that my new car’s name is Lars? He’s perfect) and rocked out a little bit because Lars is great at that.

            Before the movie started, Kate told me that if I was too freaked out, we could totally leave and it wouldn’t matter. She loves horror movies so we both knew I would be the one to be too scared.

            Let me tell you, that movie was SO. SCARY. Obviously I haven’t been exposed to that much freakiness in movies, but I was flipping out. First of all, it’s set in England in the Victorian era so there’s like peasant children, scary big houses lit with candles, creepy dolls and wind up toys, and other weird stuff. The story line was easy enough to follow but it wasn’t spoon-fed to you. There was hardly ever downtime to relax because the movie was freaky all the time! I read online that some people were unhappy with the ending, but I really liked it! I couldn’t have come up with something better, so I thought it was decent. Daniel Radcliff was great in his role, but it was a little tough to remember he was supposed to be an adult and the father of a 4-year-old boy.

            The movie even scared Kate, so I didn’t feel like a baby for being freaked out by it. Afterwards, we both needed to decompress a little bit so we stood in her kitchen and talked with Maggie. It was great to see her too. I miss that girl.

            Final verdict, I don’t think I’ll be seeing another horror movie in theatres any time soon. It’s so expensive and I don’t like being scared that much. I’ll wait until someone’s playing it at their house and then when I get freaked out, I’ll leave the room so I can remind myself it’s not real. The one thing about this movie being set in a Victorian era was that I wasn’t scared in my car or anything like that because the Woman in Black was never around modern conveniences like other horror movies set in present day.

            Sunday we went to church, got more coffee, and went to Panera. Dad and I took Max on a walk and then I headed back to IWU. Max is another reason I really like to come home. I love that goober! He’s historically bad at being on a leash, but Dad has really been working with him so he’s a lot better. A middle-age dog can be taught new tricks!

            This morning was back to the typical grind- math class, chapel, BMI testing in PHE, which we did in high school, and then history class.  McConn and I have reunited and it was beautiful.

            Here are some photos of my dad when he was a kiddo. My Aunt Connie is his twin and, aww cute, they match! On the right is "the twins" as everyone called them with my grandma and a snazzy vehicle. 

Happy birthday, Daddio!

Ps- I almost had them write that on the cake, but then opted for “Happy birthday Curtis”.