two more days. four more exams:
grammar
econ
computer science lecture
religion.

then i'll be this happy:

by stubbster

and not just because melissa will be on my back in the hallway :P
that's simply an added bonus.

i love will hoge. he is an amazing singer and preformer. His cds don't do him justice AT ALL. seriously, last night was almost a tie between when i saw him at the handlebar. He also had these two ghetto fabulous girls come on and sign the parts that they do on the CD.. they were hilarious. They definitely got down and dirty with the lead guitar player and will hoge - it was pretty much scandalous. I was havin' so much fun I didn't even wanna take pictures. I took a flyer off of the bathroom door (there were like 10 in there) and then asked (I'm thinking he's the tour manager or something because he's been at a few shows) this guy for a setlist annnd I got Will's. And had him sign both. GLORIOUS!

and just an update on school: thaaar's exactly 39 days until my last exam is over, and that is indeed including weekends. and then i get to come home for 2 days and then go back for commencement and zee doooominican! but.. lets just say i had a lot of papers due and a few tests - and same goes for this week. BUT on thursday i get to go BACKPAAACKING! hootay hoo!

hooray! I made the Ambassadors program for Winthrop! I'll get to give prospective high schoolers tours.. mwuahahaa! I cannot wait to do this. constantly. all the time. :D I am such a Winthrop nerd. actually, I have lots of school spirit for every school I went to. Well, not so much Riverside middle.. that place.. geh. Anyway! I must get back to school work so I can be free when my pookie gets here tonight! HOORAY!

well, school so far is lookin' purty good:
Grammar test - 99
Religion paper - 100
Econ test - 91
Comp. Science lab test - 100

and I've done well on my English quizzes so far as well, but we'll hopefully be getting a big ole paper back in that class on Monday - which worries me. Hopefully that'll go as well as the rest has been going.

I get to go to Orlando March 2-5 for the Student Alumni Council ASAP district conference.. it'll be a lot of fun, but I have a lot of work for classes to do during the drives and whatever free time I'll have. That is not so fun. But it's cool, because my pookie is coming up again this weekend :) that just means I'll have to finish work before the weekend - hah, and that rarely happens.

My brit lit teacher gave us an extra "free write" worth an extra 25 points. We have to say what we'd sell our soul to the devil for - and she doesn't want that goodie two shoes stuff like for a loved one or whatnot - she wants the selfish down and dirty stuff. Which will be money for a lot of people.. like me. Money so I can not have to work and can go travel and live out in the woods for a month at a time. and have my own plane. and island. and go rock climbing all the time. and skiing. Now I'll just craft that into a little essay and be on my way :)

So I had a fabulous weekend (Thursday-Sunday) because it was homecoming and Sam's birthday and because Jimmy came up and stayed with me.

However, on the downside, I have a 5-7 page brit lit paper dues wednesday that I haven't started, a Computer Science paper due tomorrow, a religion paper due thursday and an econ test thursday. HOWEVER, on Friday we head to greenville to see Will Hoge at the Handlebar.

AND I MADE A 99 ON MY GRAMMAR TEST. I AM THE SMARTEST PERSON ALIVE!! no really, it's amazing because I suck at life at grammar. I love the way this book is teaching it.

So I just have to get through this week and not die :)

Woo! It's Friday night!
I'm sitting in my dorm room. Alone.
I'm even contemplating homework.
Lame.

It's been over a month, I know - I'm quite lazy.
Break was great, although it didn't always feel like a break with working like crazy and such - but I needed the cash money to live offa this semester.

My classes are going pretty well, I'm mainly worried about my grammar class because grammar is my downfall in English. I'm pulling through though - right now we're going diagramming crazy, and some of it is making sense, so that is positivo. My brit lit class is crazy - the teacher is FULL of energy and conducts the class in a COMPLETELY different manner than Dr. Naufftus did. I like both ways - Dr. N just lectured the whole time, but he was so full of knowledge and we were so scared of his tests that you couldn't NOT pay attention. Dr. Furr.. she the type to come right at you and ask you a question and then ask you to go further with it. Her class is nonstop action - you can't really take many notes because it's so fast.. but hopefully it'll be okay.

I'm in the lower level backpacking class.. and I wish we went to the class more - but the trip should be awesome since Sam is going. We'll be wonderful tent buddies. I'm also in computer science lab and lecture.. both classes are a joke as of now. The lecture professor is kind of a nerd who likes to ramble. I don't particularly mind him. Religion is interesting.. we read Siddhartha and are now onto Gilgamesh. I like the way he's doing the class.. reading lots of texts instead of an overview with a textbook. Good stuff. Then, there's political economy. Basically, it just makes me realize how much econ is not for me. Damn those required classes. The professor isn't bad, he just seems unorganized to me (as of now) and I don't think he's taught many, if any, of this section of econ.

My roomie is also off in London/Northhampton right now, leaving me alone in my room.

http://winthrop.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006046&l=941f7&id=45500030

That is a bunch of random photos and a few of how Jimmy and I redesigned the room. I love it right now, but I am also lonely every now and then. Hopefully it will be more conducive to schoolwork. However, Sam and Lisa moved two doors down the hall - so I doubt it.

Cabin adventure part deux was amazing. It was wonderfully relaxing and.. it snowed :)

Oh, and I shall be twenty tomorrow. Tuesday. BOO-YAH! I went home this weekend to have a birthday dinner with the fam and Jimmy - we went to Mimi's Steakhouse and it was delightful. A little special because it was my family.. and Jimmy. But it went well. I would hope so, since he's been around 3+ years ;) Annd I got some new headphones since one of mine decided to quit working. I also got a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble (which of course, there isn't one in rock hill) and a CD that I already had (Ryan Adams' 29) and a sweet shirt for Gap (which I am not sure if I can wear yet, because it has rabbit hair in it - which I am allergic to.. but I really like the shirt) AND FUZZY SLIPPERS which are amazing. And Jimmy got me this sweet print done by Jeremy Ray.. and I love it. And basically, that's an update on what's been going on. Now I must go read the second half o' Beowulf. Ah, the joys of an English major..

well, a year and half done with college. that's some pretty scary info when you think about it. in three years I'll hopefully be on christmas break somewhere in south carolina from my first half a year of teaching. to real students. that's even more scary. although, I can't think of what I'd rather do with the rest of my life.. excepting being out in the woods all the time. my tent came today - I can't wait to set it up. I wanna get out there and just DO IT, just go hiking and camp.. but I'm scared. I mean, not so much scared of the woods, but I want my friends there with me.. but yeah, I also want to know the good places to go, to be out there with someone that knows more of what they're doing than myself. that's the thing, I'm not sure of myself. I'm not sure of myself with anything really.. I don't speak up much in any class unless directly asked to by the teacher, or unless I have something personal to relate it to.. which isn't really the best thing to do. although, perhaps I'm just trying to relate the knowledge to past experiences, which in that case, would be prior knowledge activation and a good thing because then I'd be putting that info into my long term memory. Basically, education classes are lame. and it's late, and I have to work at noon. and I love you Jimmy.

woo! yesterday at ooh, 10:30ish I sent in my last final! I have been at home since Saturday, and yesterday marked my first return to the Old Navy. FOR EIGHT HOURS. 12-8! (technically, I only worked for 7 of them, but dang, that's enough) and today it's 12-9, thursday it's 10-6, and saturday 12-8. These this feels like forever shifts kind of suck, but let's look on the bright side - I DON'T HAVE TO CLOSE! now that is most definitely a huge bonus. at least for this week. However, if I end up having to work christmas eve, you can bet your bootay i'll be rockin' the santa hat. I've already cleared it with the manager that'll be working christmas eve. woo!

well, now i must get ready to continue being Old Navy's bitch. If anyone is in town and is super board.. c'mon down!

alright, so, everyone out there.. tell me what to parody Dante's Inferno with!
Well, not so much parody as make my own. Basically right now I'm either using Old Navy or Dawson's Creek. And I'd prefer not to use college because so many others will be doing that. However, my English professor's knowledge of pop culture stops around the 60's, or so he says. So he would have no idea what Dawson's Creek is.. but it would work really well.. it has a creek to mock going over the river with Charon.. plenty of characters to stick in various circles of hell.. for 8 pages..

I got my hair cut! wooo!
I officially will have a job at Old Navy when I come back for Christmas break! Woooo! (and a little bit of awh, man, holiday hours are going to suck)
I saw Walk the Line tonight and I really really liked it!

I LOVE TURKEY!

I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire this evening. Not gonna lie, I was rather disappointed. I guess we can't expect all 700+ pages to get into a 2 1/2 movie, but I could hope..

On the down, down side.. I must go to sleep and then spend my day tomorrow with the inner workings of socioeconomic status in the classroom and comparing/contrasting st. augustine's confessions and cervantes' don quixote. oh, and studying for a spanish test. JOY!

I don't really have anything to update on, to be honest.
In ropes course today we climbed the Giant's Ladder - it kind of looks like this and it is a lot of fun and hilarious to watch. A really good partner activity. Luckily, my partner was taller than I was, so he would stand on my thigh to hoist himself up to the next rung (because they get farther apart as you go up the ladder) and then he'd grab my hand as I would swing my leg up and over the rung. Very awesome :)

anywho, I'm just procrastinating homework. It's a shame they don't have a procrastinator support group - I need it.

My parents are thinking about planning a family trip this summer. I'm interested in their reasoning behind doing this the summer before their second child goes to college.. hmm, probably because they don't want him going to cancun with all his friends for first week and getting wasted and passing out in a foreign country. hmm! My mom mentioned going to Europe.. but I don't think I want to travel over there with my family.. I'd prefer to go out west. OR, they could just not subject us to that and let me go study out in Yosemite nat'l park for 3 weeks to get 6 hours of science credit and go to Sunset beach like we always do. eh well!

I am just counting down the days until Christmas break. I won't be able to really relax because HOPEFULLY, I'll be working at the Old Navy - but just NO SCHOOL! So, other than the horrors of school right now:
- I love Jimmy
- I get excited every time I get to help out at the ropes course
- I get to see my friends AND Bain Mattox over Thanksgiving break!
- I can't wait for it to STAY cold
- I'll be TWENTY YEARS OLD in 2 months and 9 days.

I am quite ready to be done with this semester. I registered for classes for next semester this morning and it just makes me look towards that instead of focusing on all that is still in front of me. Like this huge education project that is due in 13 days. This semester really does equal no fun in the academics department. Except, of course, for my ropes course class. After next semester when I take the lower level backpacking class, there won't be any outdoorsy classes left for me to take. Well, there is a skiing "class" over the last few days of christmas break, but I'd have to find people to room with and junk. Luckily, after I go to Peabody tomorrow afternoon, I'll get paid for helping groups out on the ropes course - and I can continue doing that 'til I graduate. Oh, and next fall the new health and wellness center will be done with a kickass climbing wall that I will be at every fricken day. It'll be auto-belay.. which will actually end up being good because then *hopefully* we won't have to have monitors and I can just hook in and start climbing! gah, I am looking forward to that so much.. I haven't climbed in a year. And I haven't climbed seriously in a much longer time.

and now I must go read some Don Quixote for English tomorrow.. and wake up at 6am.

oh, and facebook now has picture albums for everyone.. and so now it's ridiculously addicting.

This week has been crazy. Well, actually just last night. I spend the previous two days fretting over studying for English, and then last night actually studying like a crazy person. And now I'm sitting here with my test done (more or less) and now I have to write an education paper and study for spanish. and then Thursday night I have to study for sociology. and go see Dave Barnes in columbia. I'll be the one with the flashcards in the audience, thanks :)

Yes, but my English test was.. well, I felt better during the actual test than the last one. I actually calmed down and focused and managed my time a lot better. Not that that has any bearing on whether I answered the questions intelligently enough, but I can hope. Dr. Naufftus' tests are really quite challeneging. I sit outside the classroom waiting, and it's down to 20 minutes before class starts and I get the nervous feeling I get when I used to swim - that horrible nervous feeling right before stepping up onto the blocks. Of course, with swimming, once you dove into the water it all became automatic (except for counting those stupid laps) and you just let the water flow over you. English.. you can't let the test flow over you or else.. you won't do well! This test was definitely a little harder - which makes me feel the same horrible nervous feeling just THINKING about the exam. I dunno, it kind of worries me because I know I won't remember this stuff forever - how do I teach to students when I won't remember all my background in English? Of course I'll just be teaching to the curriculum and not necessarily have to thrown in a bunch of outside stuff - though I'd like to, just to give them some exposure. It makes me think about how I want to teach my English class too - Everything we read connects to something else or a few things in some way. And sure, I've had to connect things, but I'm thinking not so much on another level, but just.. stretching my mind to see what it can come up with. It's hard. And his class is hard. But his class is fun to be in. Yeah, he lectures the whole class period, but he just KNOWS SO MUCH! And I walked down to his office today and it is COVERED in books - which I guess is the typical English professor's office.. but it was amazing. I want to have that many books when I'm older. I'm such a nerd. Which is why I'm an English major. Although, I was in the English Major's reading room trying to get in some more last minute studying and a few upperclassmen were in there discussing classes and how some of the professors are pressuring them into taking certain classes and yadda yadda - and I'm like.. I guess I'm not that far into the English department yet. It kind of worries me.. I just don't know much yet. I don't know all the works people talk about.. that people talk about like I SHOULD know them. It's intimidating.

Anyway, what I was getting to is that I'm really sleepy. but I can't go to sleep any time soon. One Tree Hill does come on at 8 though, and that will be a nice break - not that I've started my education stuff. Hah, now speaking of education - I don't like those classes! The only education class that I like is EDUC 275 - integrating technology into the classroom junkity junk.. we do like powerpoints and websites and projects that deal with technology. Easy stuff. But it's fun! and relevant! we have to put our specific subject standards before every project - which is what we actually have to do when we're teachers. It's the most practical class that has really struck me as pretaining to what we'll actually be doing in classroom. True, I'm only a sophomore and am not in the college of education yet, so I guess I haven't gotten too deep yet, but I am sick of all this phsyical/cognitive development and now.. education psychology. Cry me a river, but I just don't care! I just want to teach English! And I think a lot of secondary ed. minors have this issue - some of that development and psychology stuff applies (moreso the psychology because it also deals with information processing 'n such), but most of it seems more applicabale to those that are early childhood and elementary ed majors! It just pisses me off. And a friend of mine has already switched his minor out of education. He is still an English major like me, but now he's minoring in entreprenuership. and I KNOW he'd make an AWESOME teacher! but NO! Winthrop's education department turned him off from it! Now.. I don't know if it has to deal with the professors so much as the content, but the profs have to play a part. If our education program is so wonderful and the best ever - why are professors leaving? why aren't we enjoying the classes at least somewhat? It's really frustrating - which is just how teaching is going to be.. at least with all the BS extra stuff and paperwork we'll have to deal with..

Okay, I'm done ranting about life.. I'm actually going to start working on my education paper/observation notes CRAP!

It was actually cold today, folks. Like the wind is blowing through your jacket and is stinging your face kind of cold. Thank god. It was a glorious thing to see my breath this morning. Granted, that was about the only glorious thing because it was 8am and I was walking to my car to go drive to a high school to observe high school students and teachers in their natural environments. I think the Crocodile Hunter went to the wrong spots to find all his action. High school would prove much more colorful and full of a variety of tight spots. Whatev, it's fricken cold outside.

And I wore my Monkey jacket. OH YES. Be jealous because I was furry today and you, you were not. A nice blue kind of furry as well. Boo-yah.

On the down side, I'm trying to finish this activity manual for the ropes course class and it's already 12:55 and I have about 7 more activities plus all my debriefing questions. Oh yeah, and I have to wake up at 6. Because I get to drive yet again to the high school and observe. I guess I'm just a sucker for punishment. Oh well.

GHOST TOURS TOMORROW! hootay hoo.

I already miss my Jimmykins. He left about a half hour ago. It didn't really hit 'til I started listening to music and then it was like BIZAM, I miss him.
We were driving in his car and his friend Jeremy was in the front passenger seat and I was sitting behind him and Jimmy reached his hand back to mine and it was just so nice to hold his hand in both of mine. It was just so soft and warm and all of him. And I got to watch him play the drums too. And wake up next to him, even if it was a small, not-completely-comfortable futon. I mean, obviously if we had waken up in a big comfy bed in the mountains in the middle of winter.. it probably would have been a little better - but the morning breath would still have been the same :P
Anyway, I had a wonderful weekend with my pookie. It was nice and lazy. Since it was nice and lazy, I forgot about a lot of homework I kind of have to do. As in.. I just remembered some of it. Whoopsies!

Basically, the moral of the weekend is that I have an absolutely wonderful boyfriend.

I'm so glad I don't drink. Hearing a girl freak out because A. she forgot her very important medicine at home and B. because she drank so much alcohol she thought she had alcohol poisoning and C. listening to her puke (luckily, in the toilet) just made me never have to make somebody else deal with that. Poor girl, though. I'm not sure exactly what her condition is, but apparently she gets so wrapped up in her own head that people can't rationalize things out to her - lord knows how she's supposed to go home on sunday. It was an interesting thing to try to fall asleep to.

Other than that, things have been good. (except for an English test I never want back beause I botched the crap out of it) I've been keeping busy not doing my homework ;) and doing stuff with Student Alumni Council and Teaching Fellows. For Teaching Fellows I'm going to Northwestern High school twice a week to help in the English as a Second Language classroom. Sure, it's frustrating work, but all the kids I've talked with are so nice. There is a new kid in there, and he knows almost zero English but he's so precious I just want to give him a hug. I don't dread going there like I thought I would.

Student Alumni Council is pretty fun - I'm now a Publicity Co-Chair because my old roomie, Amber is the other Chair and has a lot of other commitments, so now I'm there as well. It's awesome because we're going to do ghost tours of campus the week before halloween. And we actually have real ghost stories to tell as we walk to the places, so that makes it infinitely better.

Ropes course! I am having so much fun in that class. There are a whopping four of us in there, and I am the only girl. It's fun to actually do all the activities.. although, Scott won't let us move on from the spider's web we built.. and that element is dead to the whole group, I think. I was wheelbarrowed through a hole about 4 times the last time and wow, I am still sore. haha, other than that, it's glorious.

Jimmy and I celebrated 3 years last thursday. It's really good :)
And he might come up to Winthrop today :D