a wonderful break at home.

I made it home! Amazingly. And just in time for Christmas dinner. As in fifteen minutes after I walked through the front door, my family sat down for our Christmas dinner. Not a whole lot of time to build up to that event. But at least I made it.

Thankfully I was able to make it out of the midwest on Saturday and I only had a short delay in Minneapolis. So my family graciously waited a few extra hours for me so that our early celebration wouldn't include an empty seat.

However, less than 24 hours after arriving home, I packed back up (actually I just dumped out all the dirty clothes and scrambled for enough clean ones) and headed north for a few days.

Now I'm finally home for a while, complete with the walk-thru bedroom covered in clothing, suitcases, and bright pink flowers. And I have decided to not do anything that I don't want to...except work of course...which I do kind of want to do considering I get paid. But everything else: is made of catching up on the hours and hours of not sleeping and spending lots of time with the siblings.

Oh and this weekend? the beach of course. where else?

a flight?

Its 12:21. What was I supposed to be doing now? packing like crazy so that I could get out of here on time to get something to eat before I got on the plane for a long night of flying home.
What am I doing? absolutely nothing but only for a short time before I start doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the day...maybe tomorrow too.

Why oh dear Denver? Why do you have to enter a blizzard the day before I go home for Christmas? But yes I am thankful I'm not one of the 5 thousand people who gets to sleep in the Denver airport for Christmas weekend. Or any other airport for that matter.

Instead it looks like I'm going to go home with my roommate and take the place of her sister and brother-in-law who are of course also not flying home today. And I get to do some laundry and watch some movies and make about 100 phone calls.

Somehow I am still in a good mood. Actually I've spent most of the day wondering where my energy and happiness is coming from. I should be like my poor neighbors who are practically unable to do anything from stress, lack of sleep, and anxiety; but instead of making me freak out, all of those things have made me enjoy every crazy moment of the day.

Well almost every moment. There were a few that weren't so enjoyable:
8:10 am: I roll over reach for my alarm clock, read the time, close my eyes. Check the time again. still 8:10. I wait a moment for it all to sink in. My exam started at 8...as in 10 min ago. I start asking random questions as to the validity of the time on my alarm clock.
Finally I jump out of bed, check the clock on my computer, yes it is now 8:15. I practically have to drag my sleeping friend out of the next bed so that she doesn't completely miss her exam too. How does this sort of thing always happen to us?

Oh yeah, maybe because we weren't studying last night like we were supposed to but instead were probably keeping the whole building awake with water fights and dancing and other random behavior.

I did make it to the classroom and I actually finished the exam with time to spare, thanks to the gracious professor, who pretended to ignore the sleep lines all over my face.

My next exam only took 15 minutes. So now time stretches out infinitely in front of me.

And I'm seriously beginning to wonder if I'll get home by Christmas. Good thing there are so many movie marathons that I've been hoping to get through. And my wonderful roommate would thankfully rather spend her time here in the dorm watching countless movies than at home doing nothing.

Okay I think my energy is beginning to flow towards exhaustion. I think I'll go get started on those movies.

basically....Christmas.

Since its 52 degrees today (as opposed to the 2 degrees that it was earlier this week), my roommate and I decided to go ice skating.
Now when her dad called and said that he had gone out on the pond and dug through the 6 inch-think ice, I was pretty excited. You see, I've had this lifelong dream to skate on a pond and suddenly there was hope of fulfilling it. Especially since at home we a) don't have ice and b) don't have skates.
So even though it has been a bitterly cold week and I still have another project left to finish before I can really settle into dead week, I've been able to spend a little time enjoying some of the nicer parts of winter in Iowa. (also includes putting up Christmas lights in our dorm...which we might just have to leave up all year long).

Only a few more classes, several exams, one very large Lit project, and only a couple hours of sleep left until break!

um...sleep?

my brain functions are at an all time low....just finished my (hopefully) last research paper of the year. that is, if I'm no forgetting one. still have a list of projects to finish before I can even think about exams...but just 6 more days of class. whoever decided to extend the semester until practically Christmas eve was insane. but tonite I'm going to bed early...maybe even eleven! but probably not. ok. I need a grilled cheese.

enough time to blow dry my hair tomorrow so that it doesn't freeze on the way to class.

Things I'd rather have the number eight stand for:

days left of class
minutes of extra sleep
Christmas presents I have already bought for my family
hours until I hop on that plane headed west
letters in my mailbox
new shoes I've just bought (while that is a bit extreme, I'll admit)
kinds of cookies and sweets my grandma's made for me (that's actually near the truth)
length (in minutes) of my next class
weekends to do nothing
extra credit points on my last test
pages of writing to finish
dollars found in my pocket
new emails that did not relate to homework in any way

sadly, this week eight stands for the temperature low. as in eight degrees. 8

a week filled with frantic paper-writing.

I need to clear my conscience. I've somehow slid into the role of the slacker-blogger that I usually make fun of. But you see, I'm a sophomore which basically equals boring. And since I already spent 9 mo. complaining about the cold weather, I can't quite pull that off anymore.

But I'm not going to quit my countdowns! (you know you're excited!!!)

So: 38 days until Christmas break (a long time I know...but hey its Christmas I'm excited)
8 days until I pick my parents up at the airport for Thanksgiving break!
Which also means 7 days of scrambling to get all my homework done before break...we'll see how that goes.
8 books left to read for Adolescent Lit.
4 or maybe 5 or 6 (I don't really like to dwell on it) papers to write this semester
1 credit and a half still left unaccounted for before going into overload for next semester (which I definitely don't plan on filling)
6 volleyball PE classes left (hallelujah!)
23 mornings of waking up with my alarm clock
And finally, sadly, only 38 days until half of my friends leave for the homeland...(whether that's Oregon, Canada, the Netherlands, or various other places around the globe will remain undetermined) but we definitely have a lot of not-studying to do in the next month.

But for now? One pizza buffet to devour! My aunt and uncle are taking me to pizza tonite!

another chance to meet the president.

My Friday night plans turned out a little differently than expected. Rumors had spread that the President was in a nearby town giving some Rep. support, so we decided, that as US citizens (and one Canadian) we needed to go meet this man. Unfortunately, even with all of our well laid out plans, the most we saw of him was the Taco John's sign that read: Mr. President, you're wife called: she wants you to bring home tacos.
We decided not to get too down about our misfortune, and afterall, we were in the self-proclaimed ice cream capital of the world. So why not enjoy? You can probably easily see the progression of the pictures as the happiness of our tongues turned into the general discomfort of our stomachs. And somehow, we even managed to find a big slide in the shape of a silo to visit on the way home.

a fun and refreshing (or maybe exhausting) weekend.

I have been ordered to blog, so if you have any complaints you can file them at: Brenna's Happy Blog.

I would have blogged sooner but I have been waiting on pictures from last weekend to describe my cooking experiences and my new cultural experience: shuffleboard (which I am amazing at, I have to admit). Unfortunately, I don't have those yet, so you'll just have to do without.

This week has been great, I finally wrote a paper that really should have been written more than six months ago and I had the best week of volleyball class in the world. I love it! The first day we all went over to the rec center and took roll, heard about the basic requirements and then left. And then on Wednesday, I got an email telling me that the instructor's kids were sick so he had to stay home and take care of them = no class! Sometimes I wonder for a moment why I'm not majoring in teaching PE... but only for a very short moment.

I also spent a few hours with some eighth graders this week. We've been reading the same books and so I met with them and discussed the themes and plot and so forth. Although it was pretty fun (and I got to skip a science class) its pretty scary to think that in just a couple of years I'm going to have a whole class just like that as my responsibility. (good thing Brenna will already be in high school...whew!)

And tomorrow? I'm going shopping! As in get up at the break of dawn (at least 8) and go all day until my legs and feet hurt from walking, my arms hurt from carrying so many bags and I can collapse in the car amidst empty burger king sacks, receipts, full bags, a lighter purse, and boxes of cute heels. So glad I'm ahead of my homework!

a beautiful weekend.

My great accomplishment of the week:

I finished homework for Monday, yesterday. As in I did homework more than 10 hours before it was due!

So last night? I went out to dinner with some family and basically did nothing from six o'clock until I went to class this morning.

It was a rather interesting feeling, I'm sure that I've felt that before (maybe when I was 15) but I've completely forgotten about the joy of going to sleep without a thousand things running through my mind.

I'm sure you're asking why or how did this happen!? Did I plan ahead and keep my focus? Uh no. Acutally I pretty much won by default. Its Parents Weekend, so everybody's pretty much giving us slack homework so we can have some bonding time with the fam.

But since my parents are doing their own slacking off in Idaho this weekend, I have a whole weekend to write only 2 papers and read several books. which will be wonderful oh and its almost fifty degrees!

a good test score and some hot chocolate.

We woke up to more snow this morning, this time it stuck though. Except it didn't really last too long. I'm sure it will all be gone by the time we get some more in a few days.

So what does that mean? Shoe shopping! Ok, so pretty much every event in my life brings about the need for a new pair of shoes, but especially this one. I need some warm closed-in grippy ones.

Oh and tonite, I have to take the CAAP test to get into the Teacher Ed program. Yay for me. Oh its just like the ACT's everybody says. But wait, didn't I already take like 3 or 4 of those tests just to get here? Its all right though, I probably wouldn't have gotten that much done between 6:30-9:30 tonite...might as well spend it filling in circles on an answer sheet. And besides, we wouldn't want teachers who can't even get above the 17th percentile on a general assesment test, right?

Well a greasy grilled cheese and fries are calling my name... I have to trek out into winter now.

some rest, an aspirin, and a little direction.

I would just like to start off with a long, slow deep breath...in...out...ok.

Thanks.

This week is over. Ok maybe its only Wednesday afternoon, but in my throbbing head, it is over.

I refuse to look at my calendar and see the list of things to do before Friday or even Monday, because I have made it through tests and quizes and presentations and projects with only my grandma's chocolate bars to keep me awake.

And the best news ever? I survived as a Puritan in my US History class and even came out with an A grade. Me! the quiet little puritan churchgoer, who never yelled at those who were trying to tear apart our church, or interrogated the immigrants who were trying to be admitted.

I think I mostly got such a good grade because the prof was in such a good mood after his favorite team won (not the superbowl, by the way heather, we're talking about baseball....right?).

But I also am pretty sure that I even did okay in the exam in the same class today. I only had to leave out one king's name in an essay because I couldn't remember if it was James or Edward. But this is US history, not English history right?

And so now, I can finally breathe and take at least a few minutes to relax and feed my fish (poor thing), wash dishes, clean the floor, take a nap...all the things I've been longing to do for the past...uh has it only been three days?

Oh and I got to dig out my blue suede coat...mmm. I love it.

why? because its snowing!

Yes, I was in denial this morning as I walked to class in utter numbness and cold. I thought: no its not snowing, its October, cmon.

But now I realize that I've missed my gloves and hats and coats and scarves. And although my roommate won't ever let me forget how I told her that my favorite month was fall, I do love winter!

a relaxing and productive fall break.

For those of you who are wondering, Italy isn't gone, its still in the process. I just finished an application essay the other day. But I'm also applying to another program through my own school, although I'm not completely positive that I would go on the program even if the other didn't work out.

With that out of the way, lets talk about marching bands, yes the ones with the loud instruments that are supposed to march. Living a few blocks from the local high school, I have formed a special relationship with the marching band, which happens to practice before school. So the thought-provoking words of the early morning: "Heather? Isn't the marching band supposed to march? Why don't they march....away?" Somehow, its more practical to march in a circles around the football field.

and of course in other news: fall break! 2 more days!

Oh and one more thing. I was flipping through a World magazine this weekend in the library as I tried to distract myself from my homework and what did I come upon? Proof of a point that I've been trying to persuade my roommate of for over a year. Dutch people are tall. I was never short in high school, but now just about all my friends are taller than me. And supposedly Dutch people are the tallest nation in the world, with my own 5'7" being the average height of women. crazy, huh?

an understanding of what is supposed to be my planner.

I have the attention span of a goldfish...seriously. Ok, probably one that's a bit more calm and well behaved than the one swimming frantically on my bookshelf, but a goldfish none the less.

(oh by the way, my goldfish is still swimming and breathing and eating...well actually, I do kinda need to feed him, but he's alive none the less, thank you thank you)

Ok anyways, about my day.

Maybe its because I had to sit thru another lecture about fitness (even though I got my little fitness test card back saying that I'm pretty much not there but I did in fact run the mile in a decent time, yes I know, you're amazed), or maybe its because my printer is beginning to seriously develop some behavioral problems, or maybe its just because I sat thru four rather boring and very long classes today, but I have not been able to occupy one task for more than about 5 minutes. (except maybe this blog)

But when I finally made it back to my computer to check my email this afternoon, I suddenly found myself overwhelmed and all calm and composition slid out the door.

So now I look back and find that I am now:

a) tutoring for physical science (ugh) which I'm just taking the intro class and hating it. and I got a 50% on the quiz today, and I haven't read more than 10 pgs of the book. So I have no idea why I was asked to do it, but hey, its an extra couple of hours of workstudy a week.

b) possibly mentoring an elementary schooler through the Big Brother Big Sister program

d) applying as somewhat of a back-up for a semester in the Netherlands

e) attending a tri-state educators conference so I can write a response and presentation on it to make up for the month of slack-ness that has been my life until now

f) going to Russia (what?!?)

and that I have not:

1) done my laundry, and won't be able to for....?

2) accomplished anything as far as homework

3) washed the pile of dishes that was my floor/fridge

5) finished...wait, actually I had a really good one there, but I forgot...oh finished reading my email

Ok so hopefully that doesn't give too much insight into my life, but I think I have something else that I'm supposed to be doing right now, so I should probably work on that.

fewer red markings on this weeks assignment.

I am very sorry that pictures have been taking up most of my blog space. I realize that this is a sign of a slacker-blogger. However, I just feel that these pictures so clearly portray my life that I would not be able to give you a better mental image in words.
The sad thing is that this is in fact my El Ed Math. Somehow they make simple concepts into confusing problems and I not only have to wade my way thru them but I also have to put up with constant ridicule of my poor scores. Somehow, 2 ducks + 2 ducks + 1 duck is actually 3 ducks, not 5 ducks. Don't ask me.

another weekend of beautiful, wet, almost-Oregon rain.

If I end up eating another plain dry bagel with peanut butter, I might just drop out.

I think a visit to Grandma and her kitchen is in order.

a pet who will survive long enough to be named.

This morning, I had to say goodbye to a very new, but dear friend of mine. He actually had no name, because I told myself to wait at least a week to give him a name. I knew that it would be much harder to bear if I had given him a name. So I took a spoon and a cup and said a few words to small fish, hoping that large fish would be able to cope with the loss, before I sent him swirling down into the world of forgotten goldfish.

Thankfully, my roommate was not in a state of full consciousness or realization, so she did not have to be the one to find the poor thing, floating at the top of his bowl. Especially since she probably would have lost all control and woken me up at 7:30 and made me flush him right then and there.

Any words of encouragement would be appreciated, especially for his kin, large fish, who is now left alone, with no one to bother or chase around his bowl. But he is left with the knowledge, that although short, his friend had a very happy and well-fed life.

another year as memorable as the last.

So I'm entering my third week of being back in the routine, and I've realized that I haven't completely settled into the idea that I am in my second year and that I'm not the 18 year-old freshman with big, scared eyes and a flashing sign anymore. I actually at least look like I know where I'm going and what I'm doing.

Anyone who is finished with college will immediately tell me how fast these years go, but those who are in the midst of it can see how long each week or term or even class goes. And of course how far away that long walk with the cap and gown (not the wedding gown by the way, that's much farther away) seems to be. That is until I begin to think of maybe a semester here and then one abroad, and then a couple here, and then maybe one more somewhere else and pretty soon, the time with my beloved wool coat and wonderful friends seems to be almost up.

Now don't laugh, I'm sure that all of you who are straining to even think back through the decades since you were my age are sitting there with that smile of "those young kids, they don't realize how different those years will look when they look back from 50 years (oh I mean 35 years)." But I'm sure you were really not so far from my position one day long ago.

So all that to say that I'm thinking that my blog needs to grow and change with me but I really have no idea how that's going to work. I'm thinking maybe some new theme's or title's or something like that, but you'll just have to wait patiently until I figure out exactly what I want. Because this is, after all MY blog, one of the few things that I can call my own, and most of us know, how much I like to be in charge of changing things.

Although; it definitely seems hard to believe I've changed at all myself since a year ago, especially as my roommate and I listen to the Beach Boys and argue about who exactly are the "Northern Girls" and which ones are the "Midwestern farmer's daughters" (she thinks Montana and Michigan have their own regions).
Or as we sit in the back of the car trying to see how many different poses we can take pictures of by ourselves on the way from Super Wal-Mart to our dorm.
Or (the most important) discuss what pet we can all live with and enjoy without losing sleep over nightmares about stepping on wet, flopping goldfish on the carpet...but you'll just have to wait to see how that one turns out.

defend my easy homework.

I have suffered through 19 hours of sitting in a hard chair, but I still get continually mocked about being an El Ed major. "all you do in class is glue cotton balls to colored paper!" "Have you learned 2 + 2 yet in the math class of yours?" Somehow none of my friends realize that they are going to someday put the lives of their own children in my hands. Plus, I am not learning elementary math, I'm learning how to teach elementary math, and I'm not spending my hours gluing and coloring and finger painting...I'm saving that class for next term. And however difficult this is, I will admit that some of my classes are somewhat slack, those in which we discuss the best ways to place a group of desks in a classroom or how to effectively break ourselves into groups. But compared to the sample of the health, physical education, and recreation major that I've experienced in my general PE course, education should be more quickly related to engineering. Recreation? PE? Talk about a major that brings its student to their fullest expectations, like how many brain cells does it take to...well maybe I should stop there: I've made a goal this year to make as few enemies as possible, and I really need to get started on that.

miss home but not miss sharing a closet with my sisters.

Dorm #2: much better version than last year's model. A bit more organized, but less homework-oriented.

Now that I'm fully settling back into dorm life, I'm realizing the many things that I missed and the things I definitely didn't miss. However, I'll save you from the torture of reading about the things from the second category.

Besides missing my wonderful friends, I realized that I tremendously missed sleeping in on Saturday, pretending lunch is actually breakfast and generally doing nothing but sitting on the couch and reading weekend afternoons. I also missed having my own closet, even though somehow I have already more than filled up my space. I missed my computer and having my own desk to put it on. Having a semi-soft bed to sleep on. (by the way, a note to those living near that darling flower-power room, think about the fact that I'm comparing a dorm mattress to the one I had all summer, maybe that one should take a break in the bunkhouse). I missed not having to wash any dishes or clothes or do any cleaning in general, but unfortunately that will likely end soon. And finally, I am thankful that I am going to welcome a new member into my dorm: a goldfish that Heather isn't completely convinced will bring peace and tranquility into our room.

buy books that I (a) don't want, (b) don't need, and (c) won't be able to re-sell next year.

Barely surviving my first week of classes...ready for the weekend already. Although I absolutely love my room: its gorgeous. Oh and in order to start the year on the right foot: the weather report is muggy, hot, and smelly. What's new. Iowa and I have made a special bond, what can I say?

Oh and my new favorite Iowa quote: "Yah, my grandparents are second cousins so my family tree is missing a few branches, its like pruning."

Tune in for tomorrow's report on my first PE class since 8th grade...and its at 8:00 in the morning. Well, I'm sure I'll be able to laugh about it someday.

control those crazy cousins.

Shiver face...




















Sad face...








Suprise Face...

Cheeseburger!

welcome a new sister

perfect the laziness of summer.

So I was actually going to post a picture of our lovely garden sweet corn (which actually now has two of those...oh yah: ears on it.) but in order to save myself the embarrasment and you the boredom, I resisted. It becomes especially embarrasing when I realize that that would make two posts about corn. wow. As a disclaimer: my life really isn't that dull. Its just that I've realized that my last weeks of real summer vacation are basically...um...now. So I've made a committment to do nothing. And I hope my boss isn't reading this, because I slept in until almost nine today. But he's in ATLANTIC CITY (where your dreams come true) without me so most of my guilt has been abolished and replaced with genuine laziness. So wonderful.

However, I do realize that this feeling is soon going to be overcome with a great environment of stressfullness. So I have made a second committment to move in with my sister (as soon as she moves into her gorgeous little house) and avoid the following:

1) work that involves:
a) cleaning out the pole barn/wedding hall
b) baking wedding pies
c) creating or putting up any wedding decorations
2) my mother, the bride, the bride's mother (even though I love them dearly and will try to make it up to them later)
3) any packing or planning for returning to school

One thing I am going to accomplish is decorating my little brother's room! (I have come to grips with the fact that I have amazing talent) Yes, this is Logan, the one who probably wouldn't even notice if his room had suddenly transformed into a house of monkeys. But his excitement is topped only by my own. So were going to base the room on orange (his favorite color: which he told me...in a complete sentence!!!) and then accent with blues and browns. He's even coming shopping with me to check out some bedding and curtains.
Now if you know anything about my 15 yr old bother, Logan, you should be staring at your screen right now with your mouth hanging open. But its all true.
A-MAZ-ING.

raise a tribute to Iowa.

So after a whole year of making fun of those poor Iowans, I have decided that I need to give them just a little bit of credit. There is one thing that we can't do here in the northwest like they can in Iowa.
Consider this picture. This is a sad representation of Oregon's agriculture.
We just can't grow corn, what can we say? So here's to you: corn-growing Iowa. You won this round.
The grocery store corn that my dad buys to replace his own garden-grown variety just isn't cutting it. Especially since it doesn't look there will be even one piece of corn this summer.
I take back all I said (wait, I mean, some of what I said) this year about that sad, overlooked state. They may not have the beach or the mountains, but they do have corn. Corn on the left and corn on the right...every single road. And of course, they do have at least a few wonderful people.

post a sun-filled weekend.

We Miss Iowa...NOT!





After experiencing some good ole Oregon culture and tasting salty wind and salt-water taffy, it was almost relaxing to get back to work today. Almost...not quite. My whole weekend was filled with Saturday markets covered in tie-dye, naps on the sand, and quite a bit of time on the road. But...good news: Angela and I found somewhere to get free Oregon coast pictures to cover our dorm walls. Hopefully, we won't be too offensive to those sweet midwesterners. I guess we can always retreat to Ang's room where she plans to build a sandbox and play a beach-sounds cd. As much as I'd love to go back and visit everyone in those tiny Dutch communities, I'm gonna enjoy the time I have left here in the most beautiful state.
Oh and I finally have a vacation planned! For the last few weeks I've been pouting over being left home with the little bro while the rest of the world travels to Atlantic City, New York, Florida, Alaska, Summer Camp and anywhere else they can think to go. But I have decided to pull up that bottom lip and make the best of it. The plan? My lone Oregon/Iowa friend, Angela and I are going to spend one of our last weekends by traveling the coast top to bottom and stopping at any lighthouse, beach, or tourist magnet that we happen to find ourselves near. I'm beginning to see a little hope shining through the leaves of endless propogation.

settling in to 19.

The exciting day is over, and now its my least favorite day of the year. For every other holiday, the let-down of the day after is somehow compensated for by the arrival of some type of day-after activity. For instance: The day-after-Thanksgiving sales: my favorite day to shop. The day after Independence day: all fireworks are 1/2 off...etc. But day-after-birthday? nope. only the realization that you're another year older (not that I'm anywhere near old enough to be complaining about my age), the thought that the next day that is devoted solely to you is 364 days away, and the hours of waiting for the great birthday present that you ordered online to come in the mail.
But as for my birthday, the morning was spent overlooking the beautiful view from Mary's Peak and enjoying iced latte's and scones and the in the evening the whole family managed to meet for a wonderful Olive Garden dinner and a trip to the drive-in. Oh and of course, chocolate cake. Happy Birthday + 1 day to me!

wish myself an early happy birthday.

Summer has finally come and along with it, early release from work and afternoons in the ice cold river. With Monday's hot weather, we finished work at noon and jumped into the river. Well more like stepped very slowly and carefully, inch by inch into the water so that we could numb-ify ourselves. We don't usually get in this early in the summer and so the water is much colder and higher than usual. My mother has been sure to repeat the number of deaths in Oregon this year in rivers and lakes as often as she thinks of the cold temperature or swift current. (its 7, and there was one on our fav. beach...sarah says) So we have been extra careful which mostly means that we don't really get all that wet. Except for me, who always seems to slip, no matter what I'm doing, and stumble completely into the water.
Unfortunately, while I was celebrating my short days of work this week, I failed to realize the coming doom of trying to make up those lost hours. But today I told myself that I was going to make up two hours and there was no way I was going to talk myself out of it. Although around about the ninth hour of work, I was very very close to giving in and quiting, but I stuck it out. YAY me! Now I just have to work 12 tomorrow. But...no work on Saturday: the best day of the year, and not just because its Canada Day.

forget about the long hours, hard work, and back-breaking pain.

Just a few things you might hear that will let you know that you've been out in the field too long:

"I am sorry little plants, is hot today"

(to the blackberry bush) "You think I don't see you hiding there in that innocent boxwood, I don't think so"

(Logan holds up his hoe) "Geron, meet the major weed killer, major weed killer, meet Geron."

And of course:

"My back is killing me!"

"Um I think I just almost fainted"

"blisters?" "Uh yah"

"Guys? I just cut myself, again"

don't tell me I can't be a country girl.

digest a lot of graduation cake.

My new favorite tv show: Passions. Ok hold on. I haven't lost it and I haven't been sucked into the sad life of a soap opera obssessed potato. To tell you the truth, I think that the show is only good in 15 min segments. In this short clip, you can get a taste of everyone's lives along with all of their problems. Actually, more like you can just laugh at the ridiculousness of the drama as the faceless monk tears up the painting and the teens try to solve a mystery surrounding the masked ball and the tear-streaked woman splashes water on some random person. Pretty much a great way to spend my 2:30 break, sitting at the counter dying of laughter while having absolutely no idea what is going on.
Also, I went to my high school's graduation this afternoon. Very nice ceremony, but it was definitely strange to be there. Mostly because although my own graduation seems like decades ago, I really don't feel old enough to be part of the "alumni." Very strange experience.

read the signs.

Signs are usually posted for a specific purpose. Now of course, many of these purposes are meaningless and pointless. However, some signs are in fact very useful. (Don't worry, I didn't get a parking ticket or run a red light) The only problem: I can't read spanish, therefore, I can't read signs that are in spanish. But oh wait! It seems that I'm still very much responsible for carrying out the instructions found on spanish signs...that I don't understand. And I still get reprimanded for not wearing safety glasses while working on the potting machine, because it clearly states (in spanish) that anyone operating this machine should be wearing safety glasses. "See?" The guy says, "You need glasses. It says on the sign. It says in Spanish...see?" And he reads off the spanish sign. Oh, I think, that sure clears things up. Now that I still don't know what the sign says. All I know is just to nod and smile and put on the glasses. Even though when I put them on I can't see through all the grime and smudges, so I'm more likely to do harmful things like lose my hand or forget to turn off the mixer. (Ok so I can't blame leaving the mixer long enough to overflow the tub with soil on the glasses, but it must have had to do with the confusion of the sign or something.)
Another observation: I know why everyone opens the boxes of pots upsidedown. The top of the box reads in bold letters: open this side up. But again. Wrong language. This time its in English, while I'm pretty sure that just about everyone opening those boxes reads Spanish much better than English.
So I've come to the conclusion that signs in general are pretty close to worthless. How many people actually pay attention to all of the signs around them, much less read them and follow them. That is, if they can read them. Oh except 'stop' signs and 'deadly waterfall 30 feet' signs those ones probably do serve a little purpose.

avoid skin cancer.

I hate to admit that I was finally convinced to read A Series of Unfortunate Events. Practically my entire family has read the whole series several times, and until this week, I've held out. But this week, I was not able to withstand the pressure any longer. And now, oh look! I'm on book 5. But (HAHA!) I drug someone down with me. My dear friend and co-worker, Sarah has also been sucked into the cult-like book club.
Mid-week, we were sitting at my counter, eating lunch and I was like, Sarah: take this book home with you and read it. And she's like, no, I don't think so, I have so many books that I've been wanting to read. And so I say, Sarah! just take it home and try it. The next day, she walks in for break, hands me the book: are you finished with #2 yet? I'm flattered to know that I'm such a great influence.
But I do have to admit that the books are entertaining. And they make me think that perhaps my nursery-life isn't so bad afterall. I could be on the verge of being shoved into a saw-blade, or being eaten by leeches or maybe even pushed out of a second-story window like an antique lamp. See what I mean...it really puts life into perspective.

say something intelligent in espaniol.

I have to say that I have enjoyed working out in the fields so much more now that I have an amiga alongside me. Even though my back is just as sore and my fingers just as stained, the days seem shorter and the morning stretches seem a bit more bearable.
And we have been learning Spanish! "necessito mas ligas!" (I need more rubber bands). And of course any number from 5 to 37. Or this afternoon, just 'uno'
Sarah and I both finish working at 4 o'clock, since that makes an 8 hour day, and as much as we would like to make money for college, we don't really want to work 10 hours a day. So this afternoon, at about a quarter till four, we finished collecting cuttings from one section, and our supervisor told/motioned for us to climb into the pickup to ride to the next section we needed to work on. He drove in a few loops and finally ended up only about two aisles from where we started and by the time he had explained how exactly we needed to take cuttings (by using random English words such as "fat" and "elbow") we only had six minutes of the day left.
However, after Sarah used her one Spanish phrase, and he rattled off his own paragraph (something about his friend coming back later to pick us up), we began working and trying not to laugh about taking so much time to work for only a few more minutes.
Once we each had about half of a handful of cuttings, the same guy turns back around and parks at the end of our row and motions for us to climb back into the truck. He asks us how many we have, and after combining our handfuls, we call back that we only have one bunch. Only one?!? he asks. Yes, we try to explain, you have only been gone for a total of maybe 2.5 minutes.
But we calmly squeeze back into the cab, since it has now began to rain (and I can't remember what that is in Spanish anymore, something with two L's I think) and drive back to the shop.
At this point, since I'm the one plastered against the door, I try to pull the lever in order to get the door open. When I can't get it open however, I vaguely remember having to reach outside of the doors of both this vehicle and many of the others in order to get the passenger side open, so I try that, but we are still stuck in this tiny blue pickup.
Finally, our driver asks why we haven't gotten out yet, and, though Sarah and I are laughing hysterically, we try to get him to help us out. For some unknown reason, the man just sits there and watches us stuggle until finally, another guy on a tractor which is just passing by, gets down and easily and painlessly opens the door. Thank you, God, for good samaritans.
I think that just about every one of our co-workers daily wonders about Sarah's and my sanity. I think after eight hours bending over a field, just about anything can seem hilarious. But as Sarah put it this afternoon as we were stumbling out of the lunch room: "I will remember this day for the rest of my life! Actually just the last five minutes...I will remember the last five minutes of this day for the rest of my life!"

remind myself why I don't philosophize very often.

Today was rain and philosophy. I was once again reminded that I absolutely love the rain. Even when I'm bent over taking cuttings in it, when my pants are so wet that I can hardly move, and when the little obnoxious curls are peeking out from under my hood.

The last few days I've been able to go to sleep and wake up to rain on the roof above me, which was something that I missed so much in the dorms at school. I think rain doesn't just refresh me, but much more, it reminds me why life is so breathtaking...what can I say? I'm an Oregonian.

Although I think that tomorrow, before work, I'm going to go in search of some real rain gear, because that will make movement in general much easier.

But today, as I stood in the downpoar, I began to realize how much I missed the rain this year, and being able to sit in completely solitude in a rainstorm (even if it is on a gravel canyard).

Having sun all year round is nice I guess, but sometimes I just think that it helps to have days like today that say that its ok to not be eternally cheery, but to just close your eyes and think and dream.

Don't worry, I didn't close my eyes while I was working...because that would have created a very dangerous situation with my clippers and my fingers. But I did take a break and lie down a few feet from those dark red and green leaves that I had been tackling all afternoon in order to enjoy the wonderful day and the reviving rain.

enjoy whatever comes.

I'm eating all of my words about the beautiful weather. Today I worked in the rain, and I got soaked. And it was cold and muddy. But then I was like, oh yes! it won't be so hot this afternoon. But oh wait, it was, about 12:30, the sun came out and I preceded to take off my rain coat and my sweatshirt and then go find an ice-filled waterbottle.

I trimmed a boxwood maze today...sounds easy right? well it takes more talent than you might think, more than I've got. But I think after a little more practice, I might have to start up my own boxwood maze business. Except that I can't think of a creative name and my hands are beyond sore from just this afternoon, so maybe I should go back to the drawing board. Or back to the greenhouse.

My talent did shine through this evening however. I left every one of my family members in the dust in a suduko tournament. Ok so we had to convince Brenna that it wasn't just a dumb math game, but that it was "in" but she finally gave up when she couldn't figure it out. I guess the family brains just didn't get distributed evenly. But neither did a lot of the other characterisitics...like beauty, or sweet-temperedness. I definitely did not get near an even helping of that last one.

One last thing....only eight more hours of working by myself...Sarah! I can't wait for you to come!

count my visits.

I was reminded this week how many wonderful readers I have. Especially since my site counter is reaching 2000 visitors today. Even though most of the time I'm just complaining about how much I hate the weather in the midwest, people still keep coming back...at least a few of them. So, I'd like to thank: my parents *sniff* they've been so supportive throughout my life. My sisters, since they were the ones *sniff* to sit down and force me to create a blogspot. Lastly *sniff* I'd like to thank each and every one of you for believing in me through everything. The only thing that would make you all better, would be for you to actually comment!!! But I'll give you another 2000 visits to practice on that. 2000! Yes! I am basically amazing! Thank you. Thank you.

spend a glorious day at the beach.

Yesterday my very best friend from kindergarten and I took advantage of the amazing weather and skipped work to go to the beach. I was a little bit worried that even though it was supposed to be in the 90's over here in the valley, that the coast would be its usual cold, windy, and rainy self. But it wasn't! It was sunny and hot and absolutely beautiful. Not that the beach is ever not beautiful, but this time it was beyond its normal brilliance. We both wondered, why isn't the whole world right here on this beach? Oh yah...because most of the world is either in school or working. I love being 18 without any real responsibilities. But it was a celebration after all. We were rejoicing in the fact that we survived not only a whole year in college but also an entire year apart. And other than meeting a few slightly unwelcome friends (a very over-friendly, wet and sandy dog, lots of little crawly bugs and digging sand-shrimp things, and a lobster-red tourist w/ a camping chair strapped to his back) the day couldn't have been better.

Not only did we spend most of the day hanging out by the water, but we also sampled every candy shop's saltwater taffy (we had to make sure that they're ready for tourist season), and we visited our long-lost pals--the seals, who are incredibly obnoxious, but you just can't help loving them. I couldn't have asked for a better day at the beach (or anywhere else for that matter).

adjust to a very non-social lifestyle.

I have decided that one of the strangest transitions to go through is from college dorm life to summer at home. And more specifically to go from having only about an hour to yourself a day to spending most of the day essentially alone with no one to talk to. Of course there's other transitions that go along with this, such as complete brain power to very little brain power needed for work, being awake from 9am-1am to 6:30am-10:30pm, and living/spending time with only people your age to living/working with practically no one your age. But again, the first seems to be the strangest. At school I had so little time to even think beyond what was necessary for writing papers (which of course was a lot), but every spare moment was spent talking about mostly pretty stupid things and laughing about even more stupid things. Now I spend the majority of my day quietly, since no one really wants to work too hard to figure out a broken English/Spanish conversation. Not that I don't spend most of it thinking about stupid things (refer to my previous post), but just that fact that I have so much time to think regardless is quite a change. I tried to figure out if I could do anything productive by only thinking with no physical work whatsoever, but I'm not sure that I can.
But very very soon....My bestest bestest propogation girls are coming home!!! And we are going to have so much to catch up on that we will be talking non-stop for at least two weeks worth of putting pots on the conveyor belt.
Good luck on that last little bit of the year, girls! You're almost there and we all know that you can do it! Can't wait to see you!

understand my family's new obsession with dumb tv shows...I haven't been gone that long...and look at what they've become!!!

These are thoughts that ran through my head during the six hours that I was sticking pots onto the conveyor belt at work:

It would really be nice if someone just popped in to say hi...of course I'd have to tell them that i can't talk to them and they need to leave so I don't get in trouble. But still...it would be a nice distraction.

Working on the potting machine is a little bit like life. It keeps on moving at a slow and steady pace, but sometimes it seems to be going really fast and gets hectic, and other times it almost slows down and gets a bit lazy. Sometimes you have time to look ahead to what's coming at you, and other times all you can do is watch the empty slots go by with no time to put a pot in.

I wonder how many slots there are on the conveyor belt....one, two, three...wow...way too much thinking for my first week of summer vacation. I need to save up my brain power for later.

Its kinda strange how you can laugh with someone about completely messing up when neither of you can understand what the other is saying.

Wow...that was a very heavy and sharp object very close to my fingers.

What is he saying?! Does he not realize that I don't speak Spanish and can't understand more than two words of that whole paragraph?

I wonder if I can hook up the dvd player outside on the patio so I can sit in the hot tub and watch a movie at the same time...hmmm...how long till break?

You know, its not very smart to try to rub your eye when your hands are covered in soil.

I wonder which is more boring: sticking pots onto a conveyor belt, or sitting in class trying to pay attention to a biology lecture.

Time has begun to have zero meaning...the belt just keeps looping around. I hope its close to 4:00 so I can go home........what time is it? 5? 5:17??? Are you kidding me? AHHH! I need a watch...I'm going home to sit in the hot tub! I thought we stopped at 4:00?!?!

So as you can see, it is pretty darn exciting working out in the nursery. I have switched from doing zero physical work and all mental work to doing all physical work and zero mental. Kinda nice actually. I just wish I spoke Spanish so that I don't look like a total air-head all the time.

climatize to the warm humidity of a greenhouse.

I returned to the foreign country that is my backyard today. I suffered a change in language, music, climate...talk about culture shock. My back is also in shock, who knew that being a foot-and-a-half taller than your co-workers would affect you so much. Maybe its because I have to bend over an extra foot-and-a-half to reach the plants.

So to all of my fellow propagation girls: I miss you! Its so boring being the only one to speak English. I also felt extremely stupid (as always) standing in a big circle and stretching at 7:30 in the morning. Also: I have a confession to make: I sat on one of the pots. I couldn't help it, there was no room to actually sit on the ground and my knees and back couldn't take bending over any longer. Don't worry though, it wasn't for very long, and I don't think anyone saw me. So as soon as you girls can pull yourselves away from those exams and join me in the greenhouse the better. Oh by the way, not to cause you any dread or heartache, but we're not in the theater. Instead we're back to doing our cuttings the "new and improved" way. Out in the greenhouses and fields. But hey, when you're working with me, its gotta be fun right?

For the rest of you: you all can sleep well tonite. I successfully rid 34 flats of boxwood of liverwart, or whatever that slimy green stuff is. Whew. Good thing that's over. Oh and I smushed a wasp nest, so you're all safe from that too. Don't worry, there are no thanks needed.

get used to being home again.

I'm home!! I'm finished with school! I'm no longer a freshman! I...still have no money! But I do have time!
But all my friends are still in school. So at this point I'm just working and trying to think of creative ways to get setttled into the pink room. My beautiful paradise-like room has been taken over by the little sis, and now I'm in the very bright pink and daisy room with a hard mattress. Not that i'm complaining. I have a bed afterall and its free and a job. Thank you mom and dad.
Now I just have to get my midwestern friends to come visit me! Soon!

let the thought sink in.

One more thing: its my last night as a college freshman! And I've conquered one year on my own. Only 73 more to go! Well only 3 more years in college....crazy. I don't think that its hit me yet that I'm actually done with school for the year.

sleep in an empty room.

ok so I was going to write a great song about summer to post but all I got was: oh summer is here. And then my amazing song-writing talent was completely used up. In a few years maybe I'll have enough saved up to write the next line. I finished my last exam at 11:15 this morning and then I cranked out my last paper, which I thought would take me all day and some of tomorrow, but I finished in about 2 hours...yay! So now I am packing in my empty room, which is quite depressing even though its really really exciting. The couch is gone as are the great shelves my roomie's dad made. so now half of our room is an empty, but yet still very dirty, floor. As Karla keeps reminding us, it looks like a homeless shelter.
So I have been constantly switching my stress from being worried that I'm not going to have enough room to take everything that I need home to being worried that I'll have tons of extra space to fill. I think that soon I'll realize that the first option is the right one.
Last night I helped a very stressed out Angela pack her things. She desperately needed some direction and some organization. But thankfully, with a few, "just calm down, Angela" 's and some thorough stuffing into cardboard boxes, we got her off at 3:00am.
I really can hardly believe how exhausted I am. A day and a half. And sorry Bren: I don't think I'll be up to shopping when you pick me up from the airport.

notice the little joys in exam week.

Congratulations to me! I have two-fifths of my exam week finished. Now I only have three more! However, I haven't started on any of them. But considering how much I have done, I think that I can take a few minutes to celebrate. And to perhaps inhale some more food and consider depressing thoughts such as: how many hours have I sat in this exact spot staring at this screen over the last year? Thank you Heather for enlightening me with such retrospect. Ok celebration over...back to work.

lift up a prayer.

I only have a few days left and a load of exams, but the end is finally coming into sight and I know that it will be here soon. For me, this week won't be too bad, but for my close friend Angela, the week will only become harder as she gets into it. She is hoping to squish all of her exams into Monday and Tuesday so that she can fly home on Wednesday morning. Her brother if fighting a serious illness and her family needs her as soon as possible. I would like to ask that as this last hectic week begins, you would not just think of me and my exams or laugh at all my complaining, but instead to pray for Angela, because she needs your thoughts and prayers so much more than I do. And not only through the last days of the semester but also as she makes her way home on Wednesday and reunites with her family through this hard time.

adjust to improved wake-up calls.

Now I've lived in the mid-west for almost an entire school year and you would think that I wouldn't be suprised by anything. Wrong. This morning I was lying in bed, trying to hold on to the last few minutes of sleep before my alarm clock woke me up, when a strange noise started to invade my dream. No it wasn't tractors trudging down Main st. or even the train whistle that I hear so often. Instead it was cows. Mooing. as in future pieces of steak standing outside my dorm window letting me know how much they hated being moved from their warm barn. At first I thought that I was still dreaming until my roommate came back early from class and laughed at my reaction. There was also a note on my whiteboard: Moo! Good Morning! My friends know about my lack of excitement for all things farmy and seem to enjoy every chance they can find to rub it in. Once I stepped outside into the fabulously rainy day, I not only found half a dozen cows in a little pen covered by straw, but also pigs and countless other items that do not belong in a college parking lot. Apparently AG DAY does not include just a presentation of agricultural reports or observations, but a real live petting zoo complete with tractors the size of small apartments outside the Campus Center. Yay for farms!

Looking forward to my last weekend on campus, even though it will likely consist of mostly studying. Only 7 more days until I finish out my semester and hop on a plane!

ballet in Central Park (Iowa style).

As I attempt to finish out my last few days as a freshman (for the last time), I had to take a few hours just to enjoy being young and spontaneous. So I reconnected with one of my lost childhood loves: horses; and let out stress by dancing on main street. Oh and practicing my hula on a creekside island. Basically, I set myself up for some thoroughly embarrasing slidshows for my fiftieth birthday or something like that. At least my children will know that I wasn't always a busy, dull mom who only has time to scrub floors and pack peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And when I finally reach the age of being old enough to not care, I can share these pictures with my fellow red-hatters and reminisce of days when I didn't have to worry about a walking with a cane and I could dye my hair whatever color I wanted and it wouldn't grow out in forms of grey.

keep my focus.

Ok so I've definitely been slacking on my blogging. I even had to sit and think for a second before I could remember my blogger password. But everything is heading towards its most chaotic state before begins to slow down to a close. Plane ticket bought for May 5. Knowing my boss (aka dad) work will begin at 6:30 am May 6. At this point in the semester I become immune to all forms of stress, worry, or urgency. Which is why I am blogging instead of furiously writing at this moment. I also just got back from eating a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. In a few minutes I'm going to observe clown fish for biology. Again, instead of beginning my real homework. Only four/five and a half hours of biology class, and then no more bizaare coffee mugs, no more picturing my breakfast being breathed out my nose, no more drawing diagrams of parasites. Fifteen days and way too much homework.

play way too much with photoshop.

I've found yet another way to distract myself and another reason not to read my history books.

love the sunshine!

Its summer! Okay so its probably only summer for a day...but its seventy-six degrees and sunny! I can't believe it. So I really couldn't focus in class at all today. And then all afternoon I spent outside: I went on a walk, I laid on the grass, took a nap in the sun, tried to throw easter candy into the open window on third floor, dreamed of having a balcony with my window boxes full of daffodils (which my dear sister seems to have confiscated), and basically got zero homework done.

Oh well, the real summer is coming soon and then the huge pile of homework that is waiting to be done will all be just a distant memory.

Okay are you ready for another countdown??

Too bad because here it is:

29 days until my last final is over!

get the pigeon to go to bed.

So I went to Barnes and Noble the other night (which is way too far away), and had the most relaxing evening that I've had for a long time. One of my friends and I just spontaneously decided to leave for the evening without telling anyone to get away from it all and have fun. We started out at the bookstore and then went to Chili's and then went back to Barnes and Noble.
We had a very different waiter at Chili's, it seemed like he had been working there for decades and he wanted to make sure that all of our food was "interesting." After trying to convince us that we both "had to get margaritas" and telling me that what I was about to order was much too boring: "I'm Italian, and I can tell that you aren't going to like it," he actually changed both of our orders to a slightly more spicy version of what we had ordered (cajun chicken instead of ranch, and southwestern fajita pita instead of plain). So after that funny ordeal we were definitely ready to get lost in some books.
I not only introduced Amanda to probably my favorite children's books: Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, but I proceeded to make a spectacle out of us both by insiting that we read them aloud in the middle of the children's section. I think we thoroughly confused the poor man in a suit who was likely trying to buy a picture book for his daughter's birthday or something as we sat at the short little round table and just about died laughing at these books. We then spent some time in the cooking, wedding and travel sections (none of which I have any use for, except maybe travel), and then dove into the fiction for the rest of the evening.
The perfect combination: Starbucks and a completely-nothing-like-a-textbook novel.

keep my clock on the right time.

Some people have problems with Day Light Savings time on Sunday...and then there are those who still have trouble with it on Monday. That would be me. Worse yet, I had no problems yesterday, only this morning.

The morning started with sunlight shining on my face way too early and then my printer spitting out paper at about 7:15 or so. My dear roommate had a few problems herself this morning. One started with the fact that her alarm clock decided that it needed a spring vacation and so she had to use mine and then reset it for me after she woke up. The other had something to do with my printer and the crinkled up/ink-covered paper that I found hiding inside my printer this morning.

My problem came when my roommate accidentally changed the time on my alarm clock (at least I'm hoping it was an accident...just kidding) to an hour later than it actually was. So when I finally crawled out of bed, I thought that I had 45 min instead of an hour and 45 min. Basically, that 45 min was very rushed, as I tried to shower, get dressed, edit my paper and run to breakfast. Lets just say that I didn't quite make it to breakfast. I ran downstairs to rummage through my friends' fridge to find at least a poptart at about what I thought was 9:59. I had basically given up hope for either getting to class on time or finding something to eat. But when I ran into one of my friends just climbing out of bed the truth began to dawn on me.

So here I am with an extra hour to my day and so I blog. Lets just say that I am going to be very thankful for my breakfast this morning.

dance in the rain!

rain! puddles, lightening, thunder, and refreshing, clean, pouring rain! Things around here change fast, from freezing blinding cold to warm humid rain. Its wonderful and I love it! However its hard to get these Iowans to see the beauty of it. After months of -15 degrees, these people don't want to walk over to the cafeteria for dinner in the rain. To think...scrounging through our tiny fridge to find some sad dinner just because of a little rain! Maybe we should cancel class tomorrow too! Or even shut down some of the roads! I think I may have forgotten how to drive in this type of weather. rain!

find the matches for my shoes since every one has seemed to have mysteriously disappeared.

No classes today! Felt kinda like a Saturday except for the part of having to watch Othello, a more-than-three hour movie in the basement of the library. To make it worse, my prof shows up about ten minutes into the movie 'just to refresh myself on the video.' That minimized my instant messaging for about an hour, until she left because 'although I'd really love to finish watching, I have a meeting.' Thankfully there was only one other girl watching it with me so we only watched about two hours of it. The middle really isn't important though, trust me, we checked the summary online. And in the end everyone dies anyway. We got the main ideas and plot.

However, one interesting story of the afternoon started when I was chatting with a friend who was sitting on the computer in my room. She told me that the girl accross the hall had brought a baby goat to take care of for a few weeks. Now that seems pretty far-fetched, but if you knew this girl, you might just believe that she would take a goat from her parent's farm to live in her room for a while. Now I was stuck in the dungeon-like conference rooms in the library watching shakespeare's masterpiece so there was no way for me to find out the truth of the situation. My friend continued to tell me how cute he was and how it can't be that hard to keep it a secret from the RA. I still couldn't believe her so I sent a message to the girl next door to check it out, and not one to readily lie, she added a bit more believability to the story. Still, Angela seems to be continually trying to trick us, plus after thinking about it for a little while, I realized that the girl across the hall was out of town with her family for the whole day anyways. But when I finally finished the eternally long movie and made it back to my room, I opened the door only to find little black piles in a few spots on my floor. They were fairly obviously jelly beans, but the thought that they almost could be and actually looked somewhat real, disgusted me so much that I freaked out and couldn't even look at them or clean them up.

So basically, I'm going to have to think of something purely genius to retaliate...and I'm never going to be able to eat jelly beans again.

finish out strong!

Monday. Cold, misty, smells like cows. Actually, the first time I walked outside it smelled almost like the beach because it was wet, freezing, and windy...and almost salty. Although after about one second the salty fully developed until I realized that it was actually dairy cows that I smelled. I do like the overcast sky though.

So I've made a commitment to completely and wholly focus this week (except for a few minutes for blogging--that's an exception). No more wasting time long into the night only to have to set my alarm a half hour early so I can finish my homework. Every moment of my week is going to be spent doing useful things (well we'll see how long that lasts). Ok...blogging time is over...back to reading the Consise History of the Muslim World (which usually means falling asleep while holding the gigantic textbook in front of my face). No, but really, I am going to accomplish something.

learn to bake.

So I went home this weekend. Well not really home, but to my second home: my grandma's house. Usually I never worry about making plans when I go up there because there are so many people to visit that there is always somthing to do. However, when I got there on Friday night, I drove from house to house only to find everyone's lights turned off and most of the doors locked (which is actually more of a suprise that you might think--the doors being locked that is). So I finally decided that I would just crash at grandma's house and get a head start on homework and watch Monk and What Not to Wear. It ended up being very relaxing and refreshing considering the last time I had an entire room much less a house to myself was...uh, I have no idea.

Saturday consisted of making bars and eating pizza. My grandma was convinced that she was going to teach me how to bake...I think that she finally decided that I just need a few follow-up lessons in the next few weeks. You wouldn't think I could mess up something like Tosha Bars, which are graham crackers, carmel and chocolate, but guess what? I can! She told me that as soon as the carmel started boiling I need to check the clock and only let it boil for two minutes. But we were talking...so...all of the sudden she looks over and: 'Did you check the clock?' um no grandma, you were asking about my life, the clock was the farthest thing from my mind. 'Okay, what does the clock on the microwave say? 2:46? Ok, what time will it be in 2 minutes? 2:48? you need to make sure to turn off the stove then ok?' A few seconds later the hand that was stirring the carmel was the only part of my body that had any connection with the baking that was going on in the room. So of course a few minutes later: 'I think its probably been close to 2 mintues, did you check the clock?' I look at the clock and its 2:50. Thankfully my grandma is forgiving and my friends here at school are so deprived of home cooking that they will eat anything.

The rest of the weekend was pretty much made up of trying to catch up on my reading homework, napping and eating. I brought back a cardboard box and a paper bag full of homemade food! I think I might want to invest in a lock for my fridge.

count my blessings.

I was supposed to come back from Spring Break refreshed and rested, but after three days in a car, I feel like I need another Spring Break. Our little pickup, stuffed with four girls, luggage, and squished Costco muffins, was supposed to make it back to school in about 26 or 27 hours. However, after we hit a bit of black ice, had to turn around because of road closure, took a detour through North Dakota, and finally had to take a motel for our second night before we could finish the last stretch of the trip, we took over 30 hours of just driving. But thankfully we made it safely, which is of course more important than making it in a small amount of time. And we were able to sleep in a nice hotel and gain some much needed energy to finish driving. We actually found out yesterday morning when we were searching for the non-existent continental breakfast that the hotel had a beautiful indoor pool and spa. Unfortunately we didn't have time to swim, but we did take a few glamour shots in the "tropical paradise."

catch up on sleep.

Yes Yes, I lied. Don't worry, you weren't the only one. I lied to everyone. But can you blame me? I finally pulled off a real suprise. My parents, my siblings, my friends. Everybody.
So after 27, not 18, hours in the car, I've had the most wonderful week in Oregon...not Canada. The beach, the mountains, the rain, Burgerville, Mervyn's, Costco muffins, curvy roads, full service gas stations, and of course my friends and family. The best suprises were my parents, my older brother, and my younger sister:
Cole: (standing in the back of Dad's truck) just stares...I say: Hi!...he continues to stare...finally: Are you supposed to be here?
Dad: (walks into the house) mouth drops open, but doesn't say anything. I begin to worry: is he upset that I didn't tell him? how can he be upset that I'm home? Oh no! (we hug) ok good, he still loves me.
Mom: (at work) Hon! how did you get here? ...Well, we uh, took a wrong turn back in Montana. In the middle of a hug...You lied to me!
And Brenna: (as she climbs into the car after school) she also just stares...That's why mom didn't want to go visit you...No, Mom didn't know I was coming home...YOU DIDN'T TELL MOM!
Unfortunately, Spring Break is over in just a few days and I'm headed back to the midwest. But, only a month and a half and then its SUMMER!

make time go more quickly.

Seventeen more hours. Laundry, muffins, brownies, some reading, packing, and a lot of patience. I cannot wait. I don't think that I've ever wanted a break more. Even Canada sounds good. Even spending hours and hours in the car sounds good. Although one of the main things that I'm sick of is people, and I'm going to be stuck in a very small space for a very long time with 3 of them. I'll make sure to bring my pillow and a textbook so that I'll be able to sleep the whole time. Seventeen more hours.

avoid paying enough rent for a San Fransisco apartment overlooking the bay while living with five other people in the middle of the cornfield.

The big news on campus? Upperclassmen meal plan. Yes, I'm just a freshman, but it will affect me no matter what class I'm in. Right now, any soph. or freshman living in the residence halls is required to buy a full meal plan which is up to six meals a day (although supposedly we actually only pay for four). Now this is understandable for a first-year student, and although I really don't think I actually need four to six meals a day, I am willing to go along with it. For the second year, it would be nice to have a smaller meal plan, but even then, I can handle it with minimal complaining.

However, since we are required to live on campus all four years (which is another story), and upperclassmen pay more for the appliances in the apartments, a meal plan for juniors and seniors seems slightly overkill. The apartments cost six hundred dollars more per person than the resident halls, and the new meal plan would add eight hundred dollars per year. This meal plan would offer 80 meals per semester plus a $100 dollar flex card. 80 meals ends up being about 5 or 6 per week which means basically eating in the commons every day. Now the flex card is completely useless, because even though they say that many buisness around town may join in and accept it, cash works just as well. And there is a reason students don't eat out more often: they can't afford it.

The college does have a few arguments, although none of them have been presented very well. First of all, the college says that the food company needs more buisness. And their second point is that the college wants to build community among the student body.

Ok, so as far as the company needing more buisness, if it is in fact only the food company that need more money and not the college, I have to ask: how do regular food companies gain more buisness? By forcing people to buy food? No. By making their product desirable so that people want to come and eat there. If they do get the whole campus eating at the commons, will the food be any better? Very debatable. If they were to make the meal plan convenient, cheap, and of good quality, mabye juniors and seniors would want to buy it.

And community? First of all, the commons building itself is not big enough for everyone to eat in. And secondly, who really wants to have to stand in longer lines and be more crowded at the tables? Also, I've only been here for seven months, and I am not making new friends or building community while I eat. I sit with my friends. Sure, I see everyone, but whats different between that and walking down the halls between classes? And finally, isn't there a way to build community between the student body that doesn't cost students 800 dollars?

The college offered a meeting for anyone who was interested in the topic the other night. Close to 200 people showed up, so they had to quickly change to a location that at least offered standing room. Most of us were expecting to be able to hear from the food company, representatives from the board, student services, and maybe even the president. But no, instead one poor man was led to the slaughter. He had few answers and no support. Instead, he just made the student body more convinced to fight the proposal. Supposedly there's another one tonight, maybe this time the college will realize that they need to represent their cause a little stronger.

Seven more days until Spring Break!

get distracted.

So I had great intentions last night when I set my alarm clock for 8am, but not so much when I finally crawled out of bed at 8:45, or when I barely made it to breakfast by 9:50. Or when I wasted a half hour on the internet. So basically, all of the wonderful things that I was sure that I would get done this morning have been put off for some other time or perhaps never. But I figured that I would redeem myself by blogging, and by promising to not be at all distracted for the rest of the day, which is doubtful. Anyways, my little sister wants me to write this survey, but I've never actually been able to do them, so I usually avoid them at all costs. But when my other options are to study for the exam that I have in an hour or to start studying for Biology, the survey doesn't seem so bad. So here it is, but you have to promise not to laugh.

Four jobs I've had:
1. Selling berries at Farmer's markets
2. working in propagation at the nursery
3. babysitting (but what girl hasn't?)
4. calling alumni and parents to ask for donations

Four movies that don't get old:
1. A Little Princess (not the Shirley Temple version)
2. Breakfast at Tiffany's
3. The Phantom of the Opera: okay so maybe it does get a little old, but only when you watch the same scene 25 times (HEATHER!)
4. Singin' in the Rain and Brigadoon (Gene Kelly's in both of them so they count as one)

Four places I've lived:
1. Lebanon, OR.
2. Sioux Center, IA
3. Rome, Italy
4. Tokyo, Japan (Okay so maybe not, but when I finally get to travel the world, that might be true)

Four TV shows I love:
1. Boy Meets World
2. The Gilmore Girls
3. Tru Calling (okay so maybe only the first few episodes)
4. Alias (only the first season)

Four of the coolest places I've vacationed:
1. Guatamala City
2. Roatan, Honduras (so it wasn't a vacation, but it was definitely cool)
3. Niagara Falls, and of course....
4. the beach!

Four favorite non-desserts:
1. Cornbread
2. Ham and Cheese Omelet
3. Microwaved Chimichanga
4. Chicken Stir Fry (I know: they're all pretty sad, but what can I say, I've been eating at a cafeteria way too long)

Four (three) sites I visit almost daily:
1. My blog: to see who has commented (hint)
2. Denis: to see what "food" we're eating for dinner
3. Facebook (I really hate to admit that)

Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. home
2. in the Caribbean with Emily for her b-day
3. at the beach eating salt water taffy
4. Summer Vacation

Four people I'm tagging: (although its very unlikely that any of them will actually fill it out)
1. Heather
2. Emily
3. Sarah
4. Eryn

enjoy some of the...uh...cultural aspects of the midwest.

Cuture shock moment # 3567:

Setting: Six girls sitting in a very small hot tub, with stocking hats covering our ears and the curls that are sticking out from the bottom of the hats freezing hard becuase the temperature is below zero.

The topic of conversation is centering around, of course, shoes and boys (what else?).

Angela: (my fellow Oregonian) oh, but he wears Birkenstocks, doesn't he?

All of the midwesterners: What are Birkenstocks?

Angela and me: silence...more silence...Birkenstocks, you know...wait...you don't do you...

It turns out that they did know what they were, we just had to describe them a little bit.

dream of warmer days.

Expected high today: -2; low: -17; windchill: -22

twenty-two used to be cold. add a negative. and wind.

at least its Friday.

keep my alarm clock from dispensing its batteries off the bunk --because it makes it really hard to get up on time.

Yes it is 10:27, and yes I am usually in class right now, but this is the reason I am going to have such a wonderful day. I always feel so bad when prof's cancel their classes, not because I hate not having class, but because they are usually at a funeral or at home sick, and here I am completely celebrating their pain. But then again...I only have two classes today, so I don't feel that bad. So even though my Bio prof is at his brother's funeral and another of my prof's let us out 35 minutes early because he could hardly stand up any longer, my Wednesday just keeps getting better and better. Not to mention that I don't have to work tonite and the roses sitting on my coffee table/cardboard box are drifting a beautiful scent around the room. The only downfall is the upcoming snow: up to a foot is supposed to be coming. 22 days until spring break.

do a bit more counting.

They were right all along. Winter's not over. The snow is back.
I was enjoying the beautiful sun and warm air so much, I thought, hey I can handle this midwest thing. Although its definitely not beautiful and green, the sun is wonderful. The flip-flops had their brief excitement, but now its back to the fur lined snow boots (not that I actually have snowboots). Anyways, the snow does look wonderful through the window.
Oh and Spring Break is in thirty-one days, hopefully I won't bore everyone while I count down the days, but I also only have seventeen days left until the half-semester courses are finished. Which means I only have six more classes of Media and Technology! Which is a nice easy class with interesting homework. however the actual class period is spent trying to follow the thought patterns of a professor who has enough energy for at least seven people and then frantically attempting to decipher random sound effects and running across the front of the room into instructions for the next days homework.
And one more sidenote: the battle of the roommates is in full swing; who will be the first one to give in and finally vaccum or even widen the narrow trail from the door to either desk? No one knows...but it won't be me :)

keep from leaving now.

At least one of my plans is made. No Texas, sorry Em; no Chicago, no learning how to shock hogs with Uncle Gene (sorry, maybe some other time...not). I'm going to Canada for spring break. And not just anywhere, but the exciting, crowded, and nothing-like-Iowa province of Alberta! Ok so maybe its not that crowded, and probably quite a bit like Iowa, especially since we're going to stay at a dairy. But it will be exciting, because somehow, we're going to fit four or five people in an old who-knows-what-kind-of car with all of our stuff (not that I ever over-pack) and pray that we don't get stuck in Montana. But as Karla always says: they won't pull me over, I'm Canadian, there's too much paperwork. So now the only problem is: how in the world am I going to wait until March?!? Too bad I didn't procrastinate on deciding a few weeks longer, than I wouldn't have to sit in class knowing that in 5 weeks I'll be on vacation! Five long, dragging weeks...

plan my life.

This week has been the week of planning, although it seems that for all of our planning, nothing has actually been accomplished. Instead, we all just talk about possibilities and when I'm by myself, I just run the new possibilities through my head until I'm tired of thinking about them. So the main reason all of this planning has been going on is that we got our housing applications in the mail this week. Not that I would ever doubt living with my wonderful roomate again next year, but trying to figure out what hall we'll live in, who we'll be living nearby, where all our friends will be living and if we could possibly pull off living in an apartment is a huge headache. Another event in need of planning, is spring break. I would of course, love to go home, but if that means working for eight hours in the rain everyday, there should be some alternative. I've thought about Texas or Chicago, but definitely not working on my uncle's farm. Unfortunately wherever I go, there seems to be the problem of transportation: I don't have any. And thirdly, I have to figure out what exactly I'm going to do next year. Even though I'm working on a housing application, I'm not completely sure if I'll be spending next fall here in the middle of the prairie or waitressing on a Mexican cruise line. (ok, maybe not, but its a thought). Anyways, at this point I'm completely and utterly tired of thinking about it, so instead I'm going to stop worrying and enjoy the beautiful sunshine streaming through my window. (sorry oregon, I do feel for you sitting in the rain)

make the best out of a Monday.

So I have nothing to do for 20 minutes. Wait. Let me rephrase that. I want to extend my procrastination for another 20 minutes. But c'mon, I do really need to blog.
I spent the weekend with my cousin. It was a wonderful weekend of doing nothing but eating brownies and watching Friends. Plus a few great meals with Grandma. And it snowed, a bunch of big clumps of flakes that left cool designs on the sidewalks. But none of it really stuck, so we're still left with brown and green spotty grass.
For a Monday, today was great. Actually even on the scale of a Thursday or Wednesday it was pretty good. One of my classes was cancelled so I ran over and got a few inches cut off my hair. Its quite a bit shorter, but looks so much better. I felt so much better that Angela and I even ran outside and took a few glamour shots. Sorry, no display pictures though.

Saturdays are wonderful. Sleeping in until lunch. Beautiful sunshine. Laundry. The whole world looks brighter when you have a weekend in front of you.

learn to love commons food! (If its possible).

Two weeks down...Fourteen to go (I think). Is it way too early to be counting down weeks until summer vacation? Probably. Its not that I hate school that much, just that I'm bored with it. Its cold and dry outside, nothing ever changes, and my classes are not at all challenging. Maybe I'm not cut out for planning history projects and creating posters of the alphabet. Not that that is the only thing elementary teachers do, but I think I'm ready (I know, I swore I would never say this) to spend my afternoons solving calculus problems or writing extensive papers, instead of writing paragraphs about what made up my most effective grade school teacher or searching online to find educational websites that would be helpful to teach health class. I know, I know, I shouldn't be complaining, afterall, that's what I had wanted last semester when my life was made up of eating, sleeping, and writing papers. But I realized that not only did I find something that I could do, but I did actually somewhat enjoy it (ok devon, you can stop dancing around now, I'm not saying that I'm changing my major to english). But I definately can't wait until I can take an off-campus study. I'm thinking maybe France, although that would probably mean I should start thinking about learning French, but its a ways off yet. Its the weekend now though, so I don't have to spend my evening feeling guilty that I have barely any homework.

remind myself that winter isn't over yet.

So yes, its a national holiday and I just got out of class. And other great news? Winter is in fact not over as I had hoped. A girl can dream can't she? I do give credit to all of my friends who have been trying to convince me that spring isn't going to come until at least May. But after being home for three weeks where the shrubs actually have buds on them and enjoying the warm weather here for a week, I couldn't get myself to actually believe that the ground was going to turn icy and white again. Well the snow has come. Don't worry, I made sure to take a moment of silence for my flip-flops. hmm...I really should take some time to practice my snowball-throwing-abilities.
I also have to stop for a moment to brag about my new site counter. Ok so my numbers hardly compare with my sister's, but everytime I need a self-esteem boost, I can jump to my site-counter and see how many people thought of me today. Yes, its very likely that my mom accounts for a large percentage of the visits, but at least she thought of me multiple times, right? And no, I don't open and close my blog repeatedly and then tell people that there were 50 people who visited today. Although, I have to admit, the thought has crossed my mind.

pretend I really do have a three-day weekend.

The first week of classes is over! I barely survived, I wonder how many times I've said that in the last six months...probably way too many. Anyway, I am now lamenting my two day weekend. Shouldn't Martin Luther King Jr. day mean something? obviously not. Okay so honestly, I'm more upset about having classes on Monday than the principle, but really? Isn't it a national holiday? Do they think that just because they're giving us a couple of extra days over spring break that they can ignore other holidays that most people have to take off?
Not that I would use the extra time very wisely, probably go to another movie or something. Although there aren't too many good ones out right now. Now Tristan and Isolde: I was very excited about. Especially since Heather has watched that preview several times a day since Thanksgiving. Unfortunately it wasn't as good as we all had hoped. It definitely had potential, a lot of it actually, it just didn't follow through. There were some good tear-jerker scenes and a few redeeming qualities, but in the end you're feeling sorry for the wrong guy, you're angry at the girl, and all you're left with is a bunch of gory battle scenes. Yet another perfectly good movie ruined, although the main character does somewhat redeem himself near the end. At least I had a free coupon to the theater, a bad movie can be made so much worse when you think about how much you paid to see it.

color.

So much for sleeping more this semester or for that matter so much for procrastinating less or keeping from getting distracted. Oh well. If I can get through 13 1/2 years of school by procrastinating, why not one more semester? Okay so there wasn't much to procrastinate about in kindergarten, but I definitely remember doing every single read-aloud session on the way to school with Judy in third grade. Thankfully, Mom didn't know that, although knowing her, she probably did.
At this point I'm not only procrastinating with my homework but also with my schedule. I went to the class I was thinking about dropping and now I definitely want to drop it. I'm not so crazy about all of the ED majors, hopefully no one thinks the same about me. So when I finally decided on a class to add in place of that one, I try and both are full. No waiting list available. Now what? Color. Dora the Explorer has become my ultimate stress reliever. Crayons covering my desk does however disable my typing abilities. ooh, that means I really can't be working on my homework!

choose my destiny...again.

Well I'm back in home sweet...Iowa? I thought that the smell had gone away in November...nope. I guess I had just become immune to it. But after a few weeks in clean air, I can smell it everytime I step outside. Is it possible to miss seeing not only the mountains but also the sheep? I realized while I was home how much cuter it is to see sheep in fields than fat, dirty cows.
I think its too early to begin counting down the days until Summer, but I'm a bit tempted. I don't know about this whole four years thing, can't there be some alternative where you can attend a three week long course and come out haveing a degree and career and numerous job offers? Maybe I need to google that. At this point I also need a two hour long course that will spit me out with a definite major and future career. They would say: as of now, you are no longer permitted to question the courses you are taking or the major you have chosen. This is the career you must work in until retirement and you must enjoy it. No second guessing.
Unfortunately, that will never happen so I'm stuck with trying to figure out which courses to drop so I can do something fun like take French or photography. Do I really need to take Ed psyc? maybe I should drop all the classes that I can't get cheap books in. I also have to figure out how to get a fun class that isn't before 10 am. I can't have fun that early in the morning!
I can't wait until SUMMER!