semester request

it has been requested by my dear old dad that i write a sort of "end of the semester" blog.  so this is it.  this is not necessarily the last blog for 2010, but it will be the last one before i come home from school.

this semester was everything i had ever dreamed of and expected from college and more.  i met amazing new friends, got involved, went on adventures, gained some maturity (how much lies in the eyes of the beholder) and of course studied a bit here and there ;)  i loved (almost) every minute of it and could not have asked for a better start to my college career.

so now it's finals time and at the moment i have taken 3 of my 4 finals, one that i aced, one that i b-ced, and one that i'm hoping didn't completely ruin my gpa.  we'll have to see about that one.  astronomy and i were not the best of friends test-wise this semester.  i'm glad our paths will not meet again.

now everyone knows that you can't study for hours on end without breaks.  that's just nuts and it will drive you nuts.  so what do i do during my breaks, you ask?  i bead, of course!  here are a few of my most recent pieces!

this one and the (future) headband below it are currently for sale (wink)!  $10 and $20, respectively

 this one was inspired by a piece of spanish tile for my good friend, Brittney Bell!  she is studying in Spain next semester and asked for a "spanishy looking one".  you can read her blog about Spain by clicking here.

i don't limit myself to beading, though.  there are great mind games and quizzes to do at Sporcle.com and amazing YouTube videos to watch...like these:

yeah...they're just great!  so there you have it.  an end of the semester blog, full of links to follow, pictures to look at, and fun to read about.  enjoy!

enjoyable?

in my 19 years on this earth i have come to realize a few things.  one of those things is that studying is not at the top of my list of "enjoyable" activities.  it's just not.  however, there are a few things that make it slightly more enjoyable, and at the moment those things are:

1. Tazo Chai Tea

2. an awesome iTunes playlist

3. and snackboxes provided by the UNT Parent Association

with the help of these 3 things i'm hoping to make it through the rest of dead week and finals week.  eep!

in other news, i have an interview tomorrow at 12:30 for BSM leadership.  i'm praying that it goes well and that the Lord places the correct people on the hearts of those choosing the leadership team.

that is all i have to say.  i know this is a pretty lame post but i needed a study break.  don't judge.

the news

there could only be 3 reasons why you are reading this blog post:
1. you are here to find out what my exciting announcement from yesterday is
2. you are a regular reader/subscriber of my blog
3. you saw this posted on facebook and decided to investigate and you now have plans to stalk the rest of my blog.

its ok if you have to admit to being a #3 person.  i don't mind. haha!

i won't keep you waiting any longer cause i just know i've had you on the edge of your seat wondering what my exciting announcement is!  to put it simply...i made it to "round two" of interviews for World Changers summer staff!!!!!

now, i realize that not everyone who reads this blog will know what World Changers is so i'll do my best to explain.  World Changers is a missions organization that organizes (how ironic that an organization actually "organizes", right? ha!) week long mission trips across the country for youth groups from southern baptist churches.  they do construction on houses and buildings in need, they provide services for people in the communities that they are working in and they just generally love on those around them.  every summer WC hires around 60-70 college students who have been on previous WC trips to be on teams that basically run the show for the time that they are in a particular city, and i applied to be one of those summer staffers!

my process started back in july when i went on a WC trip to North Pole, AK.

i spoke to one of the team members about being a summer staffer and decided that it was definitely something i was interested in.  it would be $250 a week for about 10 weeks in the summer to serve and minister to others all over the country.  i would totally do it for free but i don't mind at all that it's a paid job ;)  anyway, when i got home i started the lloooonnnnnggggg application and had it turned in by the end of september (it wasn't due until november...haha!).  after that it was just a waiting game.

about a week into november i received an email from WC saying that they would like to interview me over the phone.  awesome!  not everyone gets a phone interview so i was super stoked about that!  the next step in the process was to get invited to WC interview weekend in good ole' Nashville, TN at the end of january. 

well, you guessed it (and i already said it earlier in the blog so no points for guessing)!  i was invited to that weekend in january!  that is still not a guarantee of getting hired, but its a start!  this has been the desire of my heart for the past few months and it has been great to see how awesome God is and how faithful he is to answer prayers.  of course, he would be worthy of praise even if i did not get selected to attend the weekend.  i'm sure with all of my heart that he has a plan for me and his plan is better than mine any day, but i won't lie and say i'm not excited about how well this has worked out!  for those of you who knew about this already and have been praying for me, thank you!  i really appreciate it!  keep those prayers comin cause i still need them!

so that's my news!  i hope it was worth the anticipation i built up about it!  it totally was for me :)

if you wanna find out more about World Changers you can check them out on their facebook page or on their website at http://www.world-changers.net/

until next time, goodbye, my loves!

(insert clever title here)

oh boy, oh boy, what an eventful few weeks its been since i last blogged.  i've just had so much to do and the time that i would have usually used to blog has been taken up by more productive things...like sleeping and eating between doing loads of homework and some socializing.  college can be a little over-stimulating.  phew!  i'm over stimulated just thinking about how over-stimulating it is!


soooo yeah.  i have been in a bit of a beading frenzy lately (see excuses, excuses blog) and i just love it!  there is great satisfaction in seeing a project finished.  and it helps that beading and designing projects is a great distraction from homework when i need it.  i just finished a couple of pieces that i really like, and in a way i'm expanding my skills with one of them.  i finally branched out to something other than bracelets and i made my first beaded headband over thanksgiving break!  let me know what you think!

this giraffe is very similar to the first one i posted except this one has a border.

in other news, my foot is healing up very nicely.  everything went off without a hitch and i'm feelin fine.  i'll spare you a picture of that though cause pictures of feet (or scars, for that matter) are never attractive.

also, also, also!!!!!  i'm sooooooo excited!  i have some great news but i feel like that story deserves its own blog.  tune in tomorrow to discover the reason for my extreme excitement!  maybe if you're lucky ill post another blog today...now thats just unheard of!

"there's blood EVERYWHERE!!!"

WARNING!!!  this post contains some graphic descriptions (but not pictures) involving blood and guts.  don't read this if it will make you sick!  seriously, if you're that interested just ask and i'll give you the less gorey version.

anyone who has not seen the movie "Stepbrothers" will not understand the reference in the title, but i promise that in light of recent events, its extremely funny.  well at least i think so.

for those of you who did not hear, i endured an interesting adventure on thursday evening.  in order for this to make sense, i must tell you that one of the greatest pleasures in this world comes in the form of italian soda, specifially pomegranate flavored, from world market.  it was the quest for this delightful treat that sparked my adventure, which i shall tell you now :)

after a quick trip to sam's and some dinner, my best friend, tara, and i made our way to world market.  everything was great and our moods got even better when we saw that they had the liters of italian soda on sale for 99 cents.  now thats just unheard of and you cannot pass up an offer like that.  but here's the tricky part.  the soda comes in glass bottles.  this is usually not an issue for me, but it was that night.  i had 2 bottles in tow when out of nowhere one of them slipped from my hand and fell to the concrete floor where it instantly burst into a million pieces.

well i was a little embarassed by the fact that i had caused such a mess.  i looked down to assess the situation and i saw that my foot was covered in red liquid.  my first thought was that it was the deep red pomegranate soda, but a second glance made me realize that it was my own blood gushing from a deep gash about an inch long on the top of my foot.  it was so weird.  i would not have known that i was cut had it not been for all the blood.  it did not hurt at all.  i can thank adrenaline and endorphins for that.

anyway, i screamed for help and an employee came running my way.  when she saw the problem she raced to get paper towels to stem the blood flow until something better could be done.  tara made some quick phone calls to 911, my parents and our best friend, justin.  lucky for me, there was a member on staff who had recently completed a first aid class and she did her best to keep pressure on the cut until the paramedics could arrive, which was QUICK.

so the paramedics came in and had me lie down on the ground (i had been sitting in a chair before and felt VERY lightheaded from losing what felt, and looked, like gallons of blood).  they got my vitals and saw that everything was fine, but determined that i would need stitches.  they cleaned up what they could and wrapped my foot in about 20 feet of gauze.  i decided to skip riding in the ambulance, so instead they wheeled me out to tara's car so that we could save a buck or 1000, give or take.

we arrived at the emergency room where justin met us and from then on it was mostly paperwork and waiting.  i was wheeled into a tiny room where i stayed for the remainder of my hospital visit except for when i left briefly for x-rays to make sure i did not have little shards of glass lodged in my foot (there were none). 

after about an hour and a half from the time we arrived, the doctor came in and started the process of stitching up my laceration.  side note: i think it's cooler to say "laceration" instead of "cut" or "gash", don't you?  this was all fine and dandy except we had some trouble getting my foot to go numb where she put the medicine.  it literally took forever and so much anesthetic.  the rest was easy as pie, though.  she finished the 7 stitches, a nurse came in and cleaned all the blood off of my foot and from in between my toes (they were sticking together by that point! haha!) and dressed the "laceration".  they also gave me this boot thing that is supposed to help distribute my weight better so it won't hurt as much.  i guess it helps but it's mostly just not cute to look at.

so after 2 hours in the emergency room we left and determined that fro-yo was the right way to go.  let me tell you, self serve frozen yogurt = delish.  and it's even more delish after an event such as mine.  although, i have to say that i did not cry one time, i did not freak out, and tara and the people at world market took it all very well.  they deserve major kudos.

which brings me to how amazingly awesome justin and tara were for me.  they stayed by my side the entire time and made the experience so much more enjoyable, if things like that can be enjoyable.  we've grown so close lately and i'm so blessed to have had them there with me, so if you guys are reading this, thank you again for being so great.  i love you two!

so that is my night in a nutshell.  today, justin and tara are driving me to the amtrak train station in fort worth so i can catch a train home!  it will be my first time home since i came to school in august so i'm hoping to have a good weekend. 

that is all i have to report for now.  goodbye, my loves, and thanks for all the prayers that were lifted up for me last night!  they are greatly appreciated!

excuses, excuses

my, my.  it's been a while, friends.  i was so proud of myself for keeping up with my blog as well as i did and then i leave you all high and dry for more than a week.  what kind of a blogger am i?  goodness!

i do, however, have an excuse for my procrastination.  this week has been particularly busy.  friends from home were in town, studying for tests happened, homework was completed, shows in fort worth were played, a semi-fancy dinner was prepared, fun time with friends ocurred, lazer tag was organized and the world series took over denton.  needless to say, i did not have much free time.  this is my official excuse, so take what i give you and don't ask questions.


moving on to something that i have not spoken of before but i hope to speak of again.  i am pretty much obsessed with beading.  it is a hobby of mine that i can probably date back to when i was 8 or 9.  for those of you who are up on your beading terms i typically do loom beading with seed beads and i also do some wire work and stitch beading, but mostly loom beading.  i love creating my own patterns and seeing them come to life on the loom.  its a fun hobby and a profitable one too.  i started off just doing it for myself, but then some friends saw my work and i've been doing it for business ever since.  here are some examples of my work :)

soooo yeah.  so here are some FAQs that i know will come as a result of this blog so i will answer them now

q: do you use premade patterns or do you design them yourself?
a: i create all of the patterns myself from scratch.  some of them are inspired by other patterns i've seen, but all of them are original.

q: how long does it take to finish a piece?
a: 1 piece can take anywhere from 3 hours to a few days to finish, depending on how much free time i have and the complexity of the pattern.

q: how much do you charge?
a: i will charge anywhere from $10 - $20 for a bracelet.  a lot goes into that price, but i will usually quote a reasonable amount.

q: do you take custom orders?
a: duh!

haha.  i hate to make this blog sound like a plug for my little business i have going buuuuutttttt i'm a poor college student so i really don't feel that bad.  all of the bracelets i posted above are already sold but i can certainly repeat patterns :)  also remember that i'm not limited to just bracelets.  i can make necklaces, pins, bookmarks, you name it.

well thats what i got for ya!  if you are interested in placing and order you can contact me on facebook or through my e-mail at hannah_wright10@yahoo.com  k bye.

words, words, words

i don't even know what to say.  i cannot come up with anything original to blog about right now because my brain is going in so many different directions so the bulk of this blog is going to just be a sort of poem, sort of narrative, sort of creative writing piece that i wrote in may of 2009, however i believe that it does a pretty good job of summing up how i feel right now.  thats something that i love about writing.  i love that i can write something and completely forget about it and then look at it some time later and its exactly what i need to read.  its like my past self is writing to my future self.  does that make sense?  well whatever,  without furthur ado, here is a piece i call "no words":

I have no words to decribe what is going on inside my head.

I feel happy, joyous, FREE, gay, FIERCE, sad, Down, uP, right, wrong, wonderful, STRONG, empowered...

I have no words.

A staggering weight has been lifted from my weary shoulders and is now carried by others more willing. I do not evny them.

I have no words.

My heart is speckled with a thousand tiny pinholes, each one making it more and more weak until its integrity crumbles, and I am broken.

I have no words.

My mind knows a person on the precipice of despair, but the mirror shows a bright smile with a pair of sparkling eyes to match. Who should I believe?

I have no words.

The steel chains that held me are no more; they are long forgotten and destroyed. No longer am I held by responsibility. No. No, I am not.

And still, I have no words.

At the end of the day, I have heard more words than I could ever process, more than I would ever need to say, more than I should ever want to say. Yet, at the time when I need them most, at the time when I cannot hold it in even a second longer...

I have no words

sooo yeah.  i've had an interesting weekend and its not even over yet.  i will not go into the details but lets just say that i cut a few cords this saturday and the backlash hurt, but it was necessary.  i have the best friends ever though and, along with the musical stylings of Taylor Rae Stearns, i got through this saturday without to much damage.  if you have never heard of Taylor i highly recommend listening to her music.  i went to high school with her and she's an amazing young woman of god and she has been blessed with great musical talent.  go check out her website by clicking that link on her name :)

anyway, that's all for now.  it's sunday, and everyone knows that sundays are perfect days for thrifting, so that's what im gonna do.  goodbye for now, my loves!

don't be a hotel

i've been thinking a lot recently about a quote that i got from a sermon last week in church.  our pastor has been preaching a sermon series about authority and what the bible has to say about it.  part of that was discussing some attitudes toward government and politics that people have that are wrong and there was one that really caught my attention.

"Making people comfortable here for an eternity in hell is an empty, ignorant exercise." - Pastor Matt Chandler

so what does that mean?  well in the context of the sermon it meant that as christians we should not worry so much about offending people by being evangelical.  he spoke of how some people get uncomfortable when christians try to evangelize or when or when religion makes it into the mix in conversations.  its just a subject that people shy away from.  nobody wants to tell anyone else that they are wrong or that they will go to hell someday, and on the other end, no one wants to be told that they are wrong or that they are going to hell.  but in the long run, isn't eternity in heaven with our father worth a few moments of embarrassment or heated conversation?

i think so.  as christians we are not called to be full service hotels who cater to everyone's needs.  now, dont get me wrong!!!  i am by NO means saying that we are not called to serve.  in fact, serving has become so important to me lately and i so desire to be the hands and feet of christ.  however, i am not here to protect egos.  i am here to spread the truth, even if it hurts sometimes.

please pray for me as i continue to grow in my efforts to be evangelical on campus.  i go to such a "dark" school and it can be hard to reach out and offer the truth to those who have no interest in receiving it.  also, please pray for a new house church that my friend drew is heading up on campus.  this one is in one of the major dorms so we have the potential to reach so many students, which i love!

and speaking of things i love, i love you too!  bye!

i'm like a bicycle

i'm just two tired.  haha!  get it?  cause "two" sounds like "too"!  haha...well i cannot take full credit for that one.  logan gave it to me in rap form the other day but i feel like it definitely applies to how im currently feeling.  i could really use a nap and maybe a pint of ice cream.  that would do it.

anyway, the reason for my tiredness is yet another epic weekend.  i had the pleasure of enjoying the company of the same 4 or 5 people for the entire weekend and it was great spending time with them, however i do not advise staying up until 3 every night.  not good.  fun comes with a price and for me that price happens to be exhaustion.

now, before you go getting upset with me for staying up into the wee hours of the morning i feel that it's necessary for you to know that i have a rather bad case of long term insomnia.  for as long as i can remember my body has seemed to think that its better to sleep at 3 in the afternoon instead of 10 or 11 at night, so i end up lying awake until 2 or 3 and then crashing the next afternoon.  that can't be healthy but the only way i can think to fix it is to start taking sleeping pills and i have been reluctant to do so thus far because i don't want to become dependent on them.  oh, what a vicious cycle is this!

that is all for now.  this blog was so interesting, i know, but i felt like writing, so take what i give you and don't complain!  if you see a zombie walking around campus or you get a random text that doesn't make any sense, please just politely direct me to the nearest bed that i can sink into and sleep for 5 years.  goodnight...or whatever.

mcdonald's, anyone?

you can be sure that my answer to that question will invariably be "heck no, techno!".  i am not a fan of mcdonald's.  like at all.  i think it looks gross, it smells gross, and the product is just gross in general.  i've felt this way for quite some time and my opinion of that horrid place was only intensified when i watched "Super Size Me" in health my senior year of high school.

it really does surprise me that people still put that kind of junk in their bodies after all the research and findings that have been put out there for everyone to see!  i've been having this argument quite a bit lately with some friends.  they say that they eat there for convenience and because its cheap.  well i would rather spend more money now to be healthy than spend substantially more money to have plaque and cholesterol scraped from my arteries when i'm 70.  i would also prefer to decompose when i die like the rest of the natural world instead of being being preserved in a waxy layer of all that poop that they put in their meals.

coincidentally, there was an article in yahoo news recently that deals with the very subject of the decomposition, or lack thereof, of mcdonald's food.  i suggest reading it, or at least looking at the pictures. 

McDonald's Happy Meal resists decomposition for six months

yum?  no, i didn't think so.

mondays with margaret

margaret atwood, that is.  first off, let me just say that i feel very sorry for all of you unfortunate souls who have yet to read any of atwood's work.  she is my favorite author and a literary genius.  i am currently reading my 9th book by atwood titled Moral Disorder and, as expected, i'm loving every word.  i'm only a couple chapters in but its amazing already.  between readings i forget how awesome her writing is, so when i pick the book back up im always flabbergasted. 

anyway, that was my plug for atwood.  if you've read anything by her i would love to discuss it with you!  i love hearing other people's opinions about her work. 

in other news, i loved getting to spend time with my parents and joel with weekend.  it was family weekend at school and i greatly enjoyed having them here.  i also loved that they brought me cupcakes from a cupcake shop from home that i really love :)

i also got 2 new pairs of glasses this weekend.  i haven't had glasses for a whole year because i lost mine on a plane to london last august, so my eyes have been living in dry conditions under unforgiving contacts for a year.  i love my new pairs and i love that i got them at a bogo sale at eyemasters!  yay for sales!  that is all.

our raps are tighter than our pants...

...they're sweeter than sugar, honey we're attracting ants!  i've recently discovered the joys of rap battling.  i never thought that i'd find myself in a situation where i would need to rap to prove my superiority over my very good friend, Logan, but over the past week i've needed to do this on more than one occasion.  i've gotta say, i like it and i dominate over him every time!  just kidding!  he got me into it and i'm slowly but surely gaining some epic rap skills.  the feeling is great when you spit out a totally sick rhyme and its got all this word play and metaphor!  so when you think about it, i have now attained kickboxing skills and rapping skills, which pretty much makes me a gangsta.  i'm a straight up G!!!  haha jk jk :)  im way too preppy for that!

so i mentioned a few posts ago that i had started tutoring people in statistics.  here's the thing about that.  tutoring requires time, energy, motivation, and willingness to do work...and thats just for the tutee (is that the right word? maybe "pupil" would be better?).  i have to have all of those items and attributes plus people skills, initiative and the actual knowledge.  this is becoming a full time job that i have yet to be paid for.  not. good.  i want to be paid but i don't know how to ask for it cause i never mentioned it in the first place and i hate to invoke a rule like that now.  maybe i just need to man up and demand payment.  can't there just be a happy medium?!  ahhhh!  i guess the good thing about tutoring is that it forces me to also know what is going on in class so i learn the material and i am constantly practicing while im teaching others.  this means consistant 100s on homeworks and tests.  win for team hannah!

anyway thats all i have for now.  its family weekend on campus and my parental units are coming to visit me!  yay!  im excited to see them and i know we're gonna have fun.  the consequence of that is that i have to do all my homework now, on a beautiful friday afternoon, so that i can spend time with them.  no fun, no fun.  bye.

"it's wednesday, so we're going to do some kicking and punching!"

i love me some turbo kickboxing!  i went last night with a couple of my friends.  we love the girl who teaches the class cause she's so fun and she says the most quotable things! haha she's also from the czech republic so her accent just makes it so much better.  i always leave the class literally dripping in sweat and out of breath, but it's really fun and i always feel good about myself after...maybe thats why i ate a bag of cookies and some pretzels when i got back to my room tonight.  let's just say that i was making up for all the calories i lost during the class ;)

the weather has been absolutely gorgeous up here over the last couple weeks.  the sky has been clear, the air is always nice and brisk and the birds sing...well i don't know about birds singing but i know that i love spending time outside.  i've even ventured out with some friends a couple times to do homework at our favorite spot on campus...

we love sitting by this arch in the shade of the trees, just listening to the water in the fountain.  its so nice at this spot in the afternoon and its perfect for doing homework.  i can even use my laptop cause the campus internet bandwidth reaches this spot!  chicka chicka yeah!

well thats all for now!  later, my lovelies!

Psalm 118:24 - "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

i was right :)

as predicted, this weekend was completely epic.  i feel like i use that word a lot.  i could also use "incredible", "marvelous", "wonderful", "magnificent", "amazing", "swell", "copasetic", or any other words with that connotation.  i am so blessed with such amazing friends and i already miss them terribly.

i won't give every detail of the weekend, but there are some notable instances that need to be mentioned!

so this group of friends kind of gets me all worked up.  hannah and i get in our "moods" and we are basically completely ridiculous and cannot be stopped.  that pretty much describes all of us the entire weekend.  keep that in mind when you're reading about what happened.

we have these pole things all around campus that are there to alert the police where you are if you get in trouble or need an escort home or something.  we lovingly call them "rape poles" here.  well we passed one of them after the game on saturday night and i called it a rape pole, except jack thought i said "rape hole" and our sanity was down the tubes after that and that was the running joke for the rest of the night.


after the football game on friday we went to the town square and we went to whataburger where we succeeded in...um..."keeping" the second number of the day.  it was not until we got back to the car that we realized it was the same number that we "kept" from earlier that day!  how completely duh is that?!

other than that we just chilled and went to church on sunday.  we did not have any official plans as to what we were going to do this weekend (except going to the game) but we still had a blast, which is why i love my friends!  we don't have to be doing much of anything to have a good time.  be jealous. haha!

well thats it for now.  my oreo of a week actually ended up being "double stuffed" on both ends and i couldn't ask for more.  peace!

err'body up in da audi

                                          that's my friend, Jessalyn >>>v

she hung out with us after the game and i forgot to mention her earlier

oh! and for those of you who are interested, here is the finished mural!  my good friend hannah took the time to finish all the reflections by herself!  i think it looks great :)

inside out oreo

well, well, well.  this week has been...well it's just "been".

i guess we would look at this week like an inside out oreo, except not the kind with vanilla cookies and chocolate cream.  i'm talking legit oreo cream on the outside and 1 chocolate cookie on the inside.  does that make sense?

basically what i mean by all that is that last weekend was epic and i expect this weekend to be just as epic, but monday through friday was just ok.  its the cookie part of this metaphor, cause everyone knows that the cream is the best part of the oreo.

why is this weekend going to be epic?  i'm glad you asked!

tomorrow morning my good friends Hannah

Jack

and Logan

are driving all the way from home to visit me!  i am beyond pumped for that!  its going to be sooooo fun with them here!

honestly, other than that i don't have a whole lot to say in this blog.  i got a 100 on my statistics test, thus making me the official tutor for about 6 people.  i turbo kickboxed.  i played risk.  i had an astronomy lab.  it was a pretty standard week.


that is all.



man, i feel bad leaving y'all with nothing but an oreo cookie metaphor.  here's a good bible verse i read this week to make up for it.


James 4:14-15 "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, 'If is it the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'"


the end.

"this is not a laughing matter. it's a onesie!"

wow.  this weekend was EPIC!  it was so incredible and it reminded me of all the reasons why i love college!

so lets start with friday.  it was already a good day because my statistics class was cancelled so that meant that i only had one 50 minute class that day! chicka chicka yeah!  i also go to this discussion group thing on fridays called "doctrine and dialogue", which i love, so that was awesome too. 

now, friday night deserves a paragraph or two of its own.  it also deserves a few pictures.  friday night i went out with my friends to michaels to purchase paint and supplies to paint a mural in my friend josh's room.  we also went to yogurt story and got froyo (always a win) and then we just sat and chatted outside for an hour or so.  now this all seems boring, but im getting to the good part.  we then went to target.  target has to be one of, if not the best department store i have ever encountered.  its just so good.  i don't even need a reason to go to target.  its just reason enough that it is, in fact, target.  so yeah, we went to target and pretty soon we found some onesies in the kids department.  when you come across something that good how can you help but try them on?  i know my friends and i couldn't.  so i will say no more about that and let you see the pictures for yourself.

Wes and Josh

 You know you want one

 Josh

 Beautiful Caitlin

 Sooooo good, right?

we were cracking up the whole time and this one lady walked past and saw us and burst out laughing and she was still laughing like 5 minutes later in her dressing room.  glad we brought sunshine to someone's day!  after all that we romped around target for a little while and then came back to campus and watched Fight Club...sooooo good.  but very graphic.

saturday was fun too!  we started on the mural for josh's room.  its a huge mural of the dallas skyline.  we did it on butcher paper and with acryllic paint.  it took most of the day to get as far as we did and we're still not done, but it looks awesome already.

i worked mainly on the orange and blue building and also the sky and water.  we still need to add more reflections like the one thats already there but it looks so good!  ill be sure to post another picture when its finished :)  that night we also started putting together a really hard puzzle and we watched SNL.  i love my friends so much!

this brings me to sunday.  i got up and went to church and then lunch.  the day was pretty boring except for the "step" class that i went to at the rec center.  it pretty much kicked my butt...and my calves and my back.  im already sore.  then later i went back to josh's room with the same friends and we started a game of risk, which is like this world domination game.  its so fun and we got so into it. 

all this to say that i had a pretty amazing weekend, which only makes me more excited for next weekend when my friends from home are coming to visit me!  ahhhhhhh i am so excited i can hardly contain myself!!!!!  anyway, i dont have anything clever to add to the end of this blog like i usually do except i would advise you to not spread your men thin when you play risk.  just sayin'.

dating advice with dr. boals

kind of like life and boxes of chocolate, you never know what you're gonna get when you go to dr. boals' intro to psychology course.  today we discussed operant learning and dating. operant learning is bascially a fancy way of saying that behavior can be learned or modified through a series of punishments and reinforcements.  all that was a fancy way of saying that we change what we do based on the continuous response of others.  this is important to know, i promise...at least for the purposes of this blog.

like i said, we were discussing operant learning and dr. boals asked the class to give examples from our own lives about how we reinforce negative behavior even if we don't really mean to.  so this guy sitting right in front of me raises his hand and begins to tell the class about how he is pathetic when it comes to girls because even when girls blow him off for something else he will still call them a few days later and ask to hang out again.  (for those of you who are wondering why this is an example of operant learning this guy continued to explain that by doing this he is making the girls think that they can get away with blowing him off and doing what they want) poor guy.  at this point i was shaking my head in pity. 

well, dr. boals thought this was an excellent example.  he then proceeded to tell us that it might be a good idea to purposely use operant learning in our own dating lives to get our significant others to do what we want.  it makes sense.  through a series of well executed reinforcements you could make someone change just about any behavior.  sounds like i have a new hobby!

just kidding!  not too much of the rest of the day has happened since then because that was only 3 1/2 hours ago but if something worth reporting occurs then maybe i'll share it.  or maybe not.  my blog is kinda like a box of chocolates too; you never know what you're gonna get!




here is some more dating advice from dr. boals.  this is a topic that actually comes up quite a bit in that class!  i'll be sure to add to the list as more comes.
* (for the guys) invest in a 2-person umbrella, or better yet just a regular sized one, and stand outside buildings on rainy days waiting for cute, umbrella-less girls to walk out.  offer to walk her to class under your umbrella

* (for the girls) avoid creepy men that stand outside buildings waiting for cute, umbrella-less girls so that he can walk them to class.

cookies, cups, and cickboxing...?

so i realize that "kickboxing" begins with a "k" and not a "c" but i wanted alliteration :)  so lets just m
                o
                   v
                      e
                         along.  yesterday was pretty A-OK.  i had a statistics test that i completely beasted in only about 20 minutes time.  bam!  that meant that i got to leave class early.  this is one of the many things that i love about college.  anyway, i got out of class early and headed over to the bapstist student ministry to help set up for FLOW (free lunch on wednesdays).  i was deemed the "cookie nazi" which meant that i was in charge of ensuring that every person received exactly 2 cookies.  i had a few people who tried to mouth off and give me lip but i set em straight.  dont mess with the cookie nazi.

we had a pretty successful lunch and we served lots of students but pretty much everone was done around 12:30.  so what do college students do when they have 20 minutes to kill before class starts?  they play the cup game, of course!  now if you dont know what the cup game is, #1 that is very sad and i pity you.  but #2 its too hard to explain so you should watch this video and then keep reading. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCX_lgF4inI

so yeah there's not much else to say about that except that we played it...

now fastforward to around 5:15 yesterday evening.  i was at dinner with friends and 3 of us decided to go to a turbo kickboxing class at the rec center later that night.  turbo kickboxing is "one of the highest intensity classes offered" at my rec center.  its 45 minutes of intense cardio doing punches and kicks and, of course, kicking.  its a really great workout but so fun.  the only thing is that it is a very popular class and you have to get there super early to get a spot.  this is where we ran into a problem.

my friend corbin is a hoot.  he loves getting laughs and he's totally not afraid to be eccentric and out there, so it was nothing to me when he asked to borrow my soffe shorts to wear to kickboxing.  the class started at 7:15 so i figured that we needed to be on our way to the rec center around 6:40 so that we could get there in time to get a spot.  i arrive at corbin's room with my shorts and wait for him to change, in which time his roommates (my other really good friends) decide it would be a good idea for a photo shoot.  so they proceed to take pictures of corbin in the very short shorts, at all different angles and with a few different people.  thats all fine and dandy but we were running out of time!

we finally got on our way later than i had intended.  we speed walked all the way to the rec center only to be turned away from the class be cause the girl right in front of me in line took the last spot. ahhhhhh! i was so upset, corbin was frustrated and hannah, the other friend that came with us, got to kickbox because she got there early.  no good.

i spent the next hour running on the treadmill, using weight machines and stretching, all the while thinking of all the fun i could have been having in the kickboxing class.  the moral of the story?  men should never wear soffe shorts.

due dates

so yesterday, in contrast to monday, started off as a huge pile of fail.  i got up and worked out and all that jazz and everything was dandy until aproximately 11:34 when i got a text from a classmate.

him: hey! our project is due at noon. have you submitted it on blackboard yet?
me: no...is it really due at noon?
him: yeah i think so. actually blackboard says its due at 11:59 a.m.

in my head i was screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! This cannot be happening!!!!!" but since i was in public i kept it together and calmly raced to edit the stupid political science paper that my entire group thought was due thursday at midnight but was now due that very day at noon...actually 11:59.

this event would not have been as stressful if a few things had been different.  first of all, i like to be in charge, so i usually put myself in charge, like i did with this project.  i had all 10 other people in my group send me their parts to this 5 page paper for me to edit...partly because i don't trust anyone else and partly because i'm an english major and i'm good at editing.  second, i had put off this paper the night before because we all thought it was due on thursday and i had other homework to take care of.  and besides, what teacher makes a project due at noon instead of midnight?!  i just didn't understand.

so by now its about 11:57 and i'm rushing to get this thing posted online, but i was not in my own room at this time, i was in the university union.  there's something you need to know about the union.  the internet sucks there.  like really sucks.  it sucks in the dorms too but not quite as much.  anyway, its 11:57 and i've copied and pasted, i've edited, i've cited and annotated and all i have to do is click "submit".  i click the button and i get a notice from UNT that pops up on my computer.  and what does it say? "your internet connection has timed out.  please sign in through eaglenet."   what?!  are you kidding me?  so i rush to get signed in again but of course is doesnt work and it wont let me sign in for another 10 minutes and class is at 12:30 and i'm so frustrated i could pull my hair out!!!

so i get to class intending to meet up with my classmates to tell them that i had to submit the assignment late when my very spunky political science professor says:

the TAs and i are stupid.  the project is not due until midnight!  our bad!  but good job to those of you who already have it submitted!

 

there was an audible sigh of relief eminating from the 400+ students in the lecture hall.  i could not believe my ears.  i was safe and so happy. 

 

the rest of the day was spent studying, going to a Glee season premier party (don't judge) and helping some friends with statistics homework.  i may or may not have also done some therapy shopping at target and old navy where they had v-necks on sale for $3 and long sleeves for $4, but that's not important.  what is important is due dates.  babies have due dates, milk and dairy products have due dates, and group projects have due dates too.  my suggestion as a college student and an new 19 year old: keep up with them!  otherwise you end up with a stinky fridge and late grades.

19 candles

so yesterday was my 19th birthday. fun. don't get me wrong! i had an absolutely amazing day, but i feel like turning 19 isn't anything special except that it means that i didn't die while i was 18.  there are some birthdays that we attach a lot of significance to, like sweet 16, and the big 1-8 and 21 and we're even over the hill at 40, but 19 is kind of a "no big deal" age.  i feel older, but i still don't necessarily feel like an adult.  i'll keep you updated about that as i spend more time actually being 19, cause right now it's only been a few hours.

another new thing for me is that i started college recently.  on the 22nd i will have been here for exactly 1 month, which is crazy! it doesn't seem like a whole month has gone by at all.  time is going by so quickly and i don't want to miss anything!  college is so different than anything i could have imagined and i'm still trying to get the hang of things. 

well i expected this post to be pretty lame and pretty short, so i'll just end it here and let you get on with your life.  i'm hoping to make this a pretty consistant thing and not put it off but i can't make any promises.  i'm also hoping that my posts are less lame in the future.  that depends on how lame my actual life is though.  again, no promises.