Already breaking the rules

Hey everyone! Sorry it's taken me so long to update- I've been really busy lately with my creative writing class (I have to write a sonnet tonight! gulp!) and USRH. Here's what's happened in the last week:

Thursday
I tried out the last of the teas I bought at Teavana over break (3 total), a raspberry one.


And I know you're probably sick of tea by now, so this will be the last of the tea pictures. I just thought it was a really lovely color. Also delicious, by the way.

Friday
We had to put our puppy, Trooper, down Friday morning after he started having seizures Thursday evening. I didn't take this picture Friday (I didn't get home until Friday afternoon), but I thought it would be ok anyway.


As much as he drove me crazy, I really do miss him. Not having a dog in the house will take some getting used to.

Weekend
And here's where the rule-breaking comes in. I completely forgot to take weekend pictures. oops!

Monday
Part of my Christmas gift from Jon was one of his old Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. At first I didn't get why he was giving me some random card, and then I actually looked at it.


Apparently koalas are becoming a theme now. lol

Tuesday
I found out on Tuesday that my creative writing class would have a sonnet due on Friday (tomorrow! yikes!). Specifically, the Shakespearean kind. So of course I turned to my handy Arden Shakespeare collection for inspiration.


Sadly, iambic pentameter is a hard concept for me to grasp. No matter how long I "ba bum ba bum ba bum" I just can't hear that (or any other) rhythm in the words. This sonnet might be the death of me.

Wednesday
Jon and I went grocery shopping at Target! Riding the bus is still creepy! I wish I could have taken pictures of the other passengers for you, but I was afraid that they might shank me if I did. So here's my most exciting purchase, instead.


Freeze dried strawberries! Oh yeah! Sadly, they were out of apple and peach slices :( I would have really liked to try those, too.

The End.

Fall semester is drawing to a close, and I have only a few things left to take care of.


From top to bottom:
The Tome- my final critical reading journals
Math workbook- studying for tomorrow's math final
Geology textbook- studying for tomorrow's geology final
Folder- everything I need for my final paper

Tomorrow has two finals and a peer review, Thursday is free, and on Friday I have to turn in my last paper and the critical reading journals. Winter break begins at 10:10 Friday morning, and I cannot wait :)

I may or may not have a love affair with sticky notes

I am seriously in love with sticky notes. I think they may be the best thing ever. 90% of my organization and planning is backed entirely by sticky notes. Even though I just made that number up. It's probably more than that. I use them for everything- bookmarking readings in my textbooks, writing down quick lists, notes to myself or to Ms. Tiffany, and to keep myself on track for finals week. But first you'll have to get through the weekend.

Friday
Friday was Titans Take on Hunger, a charity event put on by USRH's Foods Committee and Reeve Union Board (RUB).


Instead of offering the multiple choices Blackhawk Commons usually has for lunch, only soup, salad, cheese pizza, and make your own sandwiches were offered. All of the money saved by doing this was donated to a local food pantry instead.

Saturday
Best Saturday ever. Period. First, I went on a sleigh ride through a nature preserve with my Aunt Anne, Uncle Chris, and W. We saw all kinds of cool animals, like albino deer, buffalo, elk, foxes, raccoons, and a skunk.


W enjoying the sleigh ride. We learned all kinds off cool facts about the animals. Like that skunks and raccoons like cookies.


You know who else likes cookies? Everyone. Which is why we ended up baking over 100 of them Saturday afternoon. That should hold me over through finals!

Sunday
Before coming back to school on Sunday, I played a few rounds of hide and seek with W. He's truly a master of disguise.


Or, he would be if he didn't always hide in the same spot.

Monday
And here's where my love of sticky notes comes in. Keeping me on track to the final two weeks of before break. There's for each of my classes (though math and geology are combined since they require basically the same things), USRH, meetings for the next two weeks, and important dates.


Yes, I am definitely in love with them.

UWO won the GLACURH region SOY!

I went home this weekend, and it was WONDERFUL. I absolutely love getting to sleep in my own bed- dorm beds are just so tiny! It was a nice, relaxing weekend, and I managed to get some work done, too :)

Also, if you're wondering about the title, it means awesome things. Like that Oshkosh will get to present its bid for School of the Year at the national level! (we just got through the regional level this weekend) It's wicked exciting because it was a really big project for USRH- we were working right up to the last minute- so now we're all extremely excited.

Friday
I got home around dinner, although I had already eaten since I was starving when we left Oshkosh. Anyway, I got to hear Brenna practice her cello, which she's definitely been improving on.


I remember when she first started playing, hearing her practice wasn't so fun. But now she's getting pretty good :)

Saturday
I slept until 9:30 and it. was. GLORIOUS. I didn't even want to get out of bed until Mom mentioned that they were going grocery shopping. I figured it would be a good time to mention how much I would love some more chips and salsa. Plus, we were stopping at a bakery and who doesn't love doughnuts? We also met my Aunt Anne at the mall that afternoon for a little bit of shopping (I got a fun skirt and belt AND Sophie and Brenna's Christmas presents!). After that, though, I spent a good chunk of time on homework.


Except that my desk looked like that, so I ended up working in the family room. Thank god for wireless internet and laptops, or I would have had to tame that AND write a 9 page paper on scholarly journals! I really do need to work on that, though. Perhaps over winter break, since I won't have terrible school work then.

Sunday
Remember my post awhile back about my wall art? Well, Brenna decided to draw a few pictures for me, so I could get some color up there.


I think my favorite is the jellyfish- every time I look at it I can't help but think of this scene from Spongebob.

So much reading!

Updates are slow again, sorry. Foundations of Literary Criticism require a ton of reading. Who would have guessed? Anyway, here's what's been going on in Oshkosh...

Saturday
At least once a week, I feel like a stereotypical old person. Usually it has something to do with Wheel of Fortune being on right before Glee, so I usually catch the end of it while I'm waiting to get my Gleek on. Last week, however, it happened twice. Why? Check this out:


Oh yes. I was playing bingo. Any idea what a $100 Reeve Union gift card can buy? Textbooks. It was far too enticing an offer to pass up. I had wanted to get an action shot while we were playing, but it's really too dark in the Underground. It was too bad, too, because it seemed like everyone at my table except for me won something. Nothing as epic as the gift card or tv, though.

Sunday
Sunday was a homework day. It's nice because it's also the same day that office hours reset for the week, so I usually have them all covered within the first day. Sadly, since I'm only a committee chair, I don't get my own desk. I usually end up stealing Kristen's, since she never uses hers.


If you noticed the Geico money stack picture above her desk, you might have guessed that Kristen is our much put-upon treasurer. (Seriously. Intercampus mail keeps losing our money.) I'm not sure what I was doing at this point, other than taking a break. Probably working on my Langston Hughes essay. Most of your probably read his short story, Thank You Ma'am, at some point in middle or high school.

Monday
Monday was an awesome day of awesomeness. Why? Because we got our first math test back.


85/100! A solid B! I've struggled with math pretty much for forever, so this was really exciting and encouraging. I actually have the test hanging on my fridge right now, but will probably bring it home and stick it on the fridge there when I go back next weekend.

Tuesday
I saw something crazy and ridiculous but very practical, but I didn't have my camera and forgot to go back later. I'll go back and get a picture of it tomorrow for you, in addition to tomorrow's picture.

Wednesday
I've been burning through the Hunger Games books. I loved the first one, and I could hardly put the second one down to eat, let alone go to class. But it left off on a HUGE cliffhanger, which drove me crazy since I don't have the third. Luckily, my lovely friend Hannah asked me if I wanted to catch up over coffee this afternoon, and sprang this surprise on me:


She's loaning me her copy! Yay! Now if you don't hear from me for a few days, it might not be because of class. It might be because I've curled up in a nice comfy chair with this new friend :) or because having two lit. classes is turning me into a paper writing slave. Either/or.

Week One

Sorry it's taken me so long to update! It was the first full week of school and I was kind of busy. Also, I completely forgot to take a picture yesterday. So I apologize for that, too. Back to the updates:

Tuesday
I have no classes on Tuesday. It's awesome. It's even more awesome since I have classes for FOREVER on Monday. (Forever ends at 6, btw.) This has led me to dub Tuesday "No Stress Day," since I'm pretty much free to do whatever. Like get a tutor for math and schedule USRH meetings!


This is the Stress Pig. He helps keep No Stress Day chill. Or, he will, in the event that something goes horribly wrong and Tuesdays become stressful.

Wednesday
Seeing as it was the day before OGS, and there are a bunch of new MTG players (none of whom we've really liked, unfortunately), we decided to get together and fix up our decks so we could own when we got there.


Not sure which deck he was working on at that point, but apparently he was really concentrating.

Thursday


We had our first USRH meeting with the entire assembly on Thursday. I will admit, it was kind of long and boring. But we did do some interesting stuff. Like introductions. jk- we talked about trying to get a bid for School of the Year this year, which would be pretty epic.

Friday
My hair was SO ANGRY on friday! Look at all of the stuff I have for it:


Both of those boxes are full of hair stuff (and some jewelry), and none of it was working for me. It was like I had Sophie hair, which takes several hair ties to restrain. I'll have to remember that the next time I think about making a Medusa joke!

Sooo behind...

3 novels and a book of short stories later, here are the rest of last week's picture:

Wednesday
During a break from massive amounts of reading on Wednesday, I hung out with the boys. They played computer games and I tried to snap out of my reading coma. Eventually, while aimlessly looking around in Netty's room, I discovered this!


A troll doll! I have yet to decide whether or not I think he's cute or creepy.

Thursday
Back to studying. Although I suspect that the boys were playing computer games again...


At least Jacey and I got stuff done.

Friday
Once again, hanging out in Netty's room with the boys. This time I discovered his lifesource:


Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's the same as Ben's...

Finals

Evidence that it's finals week:

Exhibit A- Last week's schedule (with notes)


Compare to Exhibit B- this week's schedule (also with notes)


And now back to slaving away over my last paper...

Finals

This week is finals week. Which means that the library is open 24/7 and is completely packed (along with any other available place to study). I however, dislike studying in the library because it's unnervingly quiet. So yesterday after dinner, I met Jon in the student union so we could get some studying done there. Along the way, I noticed these purple spikey flowers:


Anyone know what they are? Cause I think they're pretty cool, but I have no idea what they are. Anyway, I met Jon at the union and we spent a good 2-3 hours like this:


There were so many other people walking around looking for an open place to study that when we decided we needed a snack break, I picked up drinks for the both of us. It was ridiculously busy, and it's only going to get more chaotic as the week goes on. On the bright side, I had 2 of my 3 finals today, so I've only got to take 1 more. And write a paper. But that I can do :)

New Rules

I feel like I need to introduce a new set of rules for myself, so let's start with that. Here's what you can expect from this blog from now on:
1. I will take at least one picture a day.
2. That day's picture will be posted the following day.
3. Saturday and sunday will be combined into one weekend post, likely posted on sunday but possibly on monday.

I think this will solve my frequent late posting problem, since I mostly take picture in the afternoon/early evening and then forget to post them because I've had a group meeting or something. Now I can post the previous day's picture in the morning before I go to class, and hopefully all will be well. We'll see.

So, today's picture (from yesterday!), is quite pretty, and will eventually be more pretty! Ben is in a watercolor class this semester, and last night I saw the start of one of his projects sitting out by his desk.


Posted with permission, of course. Hopefully I'll be able to get a picture of the finished piece, too.

Aaaand, we're back on track!

Hooray for updating on time! Now on to today's pictures!


This is Jon, pretending to study. jk, he actually was doing homework when I took this. I think that's probably the only reason I was able to get a picture of him. Maybe it was sneaky, but I I'm ok with that since he ok-ed it later. What a good influence, right? I think so- I got a 40/50 on my exam this morning :) So to celebrate, I took another picture for today! I can see this pink tree from the window in Ben and Jon's room, which is cool because their room is a mess so it gives me something to look at. lol


(Seriously, I've spent a ridiculous amount of time staring at this tree)

Anyway, it's back to the library tomorrow so we can wrap up the Bosnia project. Wish us luck in case we have to present tomorrow!

Late post, sorry!

First off, I'd like to apologize that this picture is late. I did really take it yesterday, I just didn't get it posted until this morning. Our meeting ended up going later than I thought it would, and after that my brain had pretty much turned into mush.


Anyway, if you'll remember back to a couple of days ago, I had mentioned that I had never been in the public library before. I have, however, been known to frequent the campus library where this picture was taken. These lovely ladies and I have been assigned to give a presentation on the genocide in Bosnia for one of our classes, so we met up in one of the private study rooms to work on our stuff last night. We'll be there again tonight (although I'll try and find/post today's picture before then so I'm not late again). Wish us luck on our presentation? We're likely going to need a lot of it- our professor is Bosnian.

Spring?

The weather was beautiful today! Sunny and very warm- I was out in shorts and a tee shirt all day. It's finally starting to feel like spring might actually be here to stay :)


This is what I see when I look out from my desk (at school, anyway). Is is ridiculously exciting to me. Just last week there was snow on the ground and now it's all gone and the grass is starting to come back in. When the weather is nice, you can usually see people studying or playing Frisbee or catch. Sadly, today it's too windy to be studying outside, so I get to sit here and draft my paper at the desk.


At least I have some nice pictures, courtesy of my younger sister B, to brighten up the dull dorm walls :)