Senior Year Wrap-up

Well, I figured I needed to update since it's been WAY too long. I feel badly about it but mostly it just illustrates how eventful, crazy, busy and ever changing things have been around here. I'll give a list of the highlights and then go from there. Oh side note: HAPPY EASTER!!! ♥

• It is my 22nd birthday tomorrow. 22. I remember posting about my 19th birthday... Megan flew down and liz met up with us and the 3 of us and hilary went to Disneyland for 3 days. That was 3 years ago.
• To ring in my 22ND.... the girls (actually my PLEDGE CLASS) and I are hitting VEGAS. We leave at noon today, staying at the Monte Carlo (Jackie's dad got us a great deal) 7 girls, 2 nights, a 400 ft long lazy river and 85 degree weather.... can you say heaven?
• My English Writing undergraduate degree officially completed, 4 years and how ever many credits later. I had my senior reading last week and turned in my 103+ page portfolio and feel AMAZING! I am taking Real World 101 (senior class that is supposed to prep us for what's out there) for mayterm but it is an elective. I could walk tomorrow if need be...
• I crashed my car. Crashed is a vague term... totaled is more descriptive. I totaled my sentimental-had-since-I-was-16-cute-dark-blue-jetta. I am FINE, just have to make a few trips to the chiropractor a week but very lucky in the grand scheme of things. It happened on my Dad's birthday of all days, not a phone call any dad wants, on their birthday or any other day :( It was definitely a bump in the road but things are better and we have started CAR SHOPPINGGG.... yaaaay!
• On a happier note.... I got chosen to be apart of 2011's Who's Who in American Universities and Colleges. 40 students from my graduating class got picked and I am very excited about it :) I felt so humbled to be selected, it is definitely a resume booster and something very neat to share!
• I am single. Very single. And college boys SUCK. Just throwing it out there. I can't wait for MEN who have real JOBS and make MONEY and do NOT a) belong to a frat b) drink beer all day every day c) play video games d) don't know how to use a phone e) can't GET it together! I mean, come one guys, THROW US A BONE. I actually feel badly for you.... we are going to be swooped on by 25 year old men who actually know how lucky they are while you run around for 5 more years like a pathetic, drunk lost puppy. Oh well.
• I am going home on WEDNESDAY (after vegas)! I haven't been home this close to my birthday since high school and it is going to be a great 5 days. We are going to do test drive some cars, shop for graduation and baccalaureate dresses, hopefully watch one of Austin's baseball games and cook yummy food! OH and I also get to meet Liz's new boyfriend! He is older so he doesn't fit into the "sucky boys" category above. But I am SO excited to meet him! His name is Andy and he is a runner and lives in WA. We are going out for dinner and drinks this Friday and I am STOKED :)

Ok, I feel those are all the high points right now. I am laying in my bed going over my vegas outfits in my head.... short dresses and swim suits are really all that are needed ;) I feel like I am going to post a few more when we get closer to graduation in a month (May 28th to be exact) Redlands has been the most amazing adventure and 4 years of my life. I have made incredible friends and sisters. Many who I know will be people in my life far beyond May 28th. It took me a while to really understand college and the importance of not only getting a degree but taking the time to find yourself so you are better suited for your future. It is crazy to think how far I have come from the girl who sat on her hotel pull-out bed, blogging before the first day of freshman year. Truly mind blowing.

Since then I have.... met best friends on DAY 2, played on a collegiate tennis team, joined a sorority, braved 2 years in dorms, lived in Austria, traveled Europe, completed my English degree, lived in an apartment, had boyfriends, had heartbreak. And lastly, coming to an end of a chapter in my life that will be the hardest to say goodbye to. Although I am MORE than ready to leave behind frat houses and keggers, the people and the place that Redlands is is irreplaceable.

Your goodbye is coming soon Redlands.... I will miss you more than you know. But before all the mushy stuff gets too real, please give me a May to remember ;)

Life is a maze, love is a riddle

Lots of things on the agenda, lots of things on my mind!

This week...

*my rough draft of my senior portfolio is due

*Greek presents (my last one!) is on Saturday

*I get to see mom, dad and austin on SUNDAY for the BNP Pariba tennis tournament!!

*my grad speech audition is on Saturday (... I don't know the trigger of this inspiration but I decided to audition to be a speaker at my graduation in May) Wish me luck!

These past week my close-knit community has been struggling with an unexpected death. Kellan Ward, a brother of the Alpha Gamma Nu fraternity, passed away on Feb. 28th. It has been and very hard and emotional time for everyone at Redlands, those who were really close to him and those who only knew him briefly.

His memorial service was yesterday and I decided not to attend. I feel like I have made peace with his passing and based on how emotional I am, I knew it would only send me a million steps back. His parents, brother and sister spoke and many girls from my sorority. I think everyone found closure in the service, and if I find time today I am planning on baking the Gamma nu's some cookies to show Delta's support. Kellan was an amazing guy, his life was too short, but we will remember him forever.

On a much different note, the girls and I got back from a relaxing spring break in PALM DESERT on friday! We stayed at my grandparents house and it was just what the doctor ordered! We tanned, swam, had drinks by the pool, went out for breakfast, walked el paseo, and read good books. Thanks Mary and Dave for a great weekend :)

Gave it my best shot...

I have an intense (100% self inflicted) phobia of needles. Doctors, blood, shots, etc. I have passed out in multiple doctors offices, caused a scene and given my mother a half dozen heart attacks. The end of last summer, after our 1/2 marathon and my stint in the hospital I had to get my blood drawn a lot. A lot. After 2 days of constant needles, I became slightly more comfortable with the idea. This awareness led me to believe that maybe I could de-sensitize to the whole issue.

SO when a blood drive came to our school I thought, what a perfect opportunity! So after nature study class, I walked over with my friend and took the plunge. Signed up, I got a sticker with my name on it, answered a million questions and waited for my number to be called. I walked into the open room and saw rows of beds with people lying on them and bags of blood filling up. They looked like corpses. I was a little put off but went with it.

My number was called and the nurse took me back and pricked my finger to check my blood. Um, finger prick: OW. And she picked my right hand which was annoying. My poor ring finger felt like it had a pulse. I was only imagining what those daunting beds had in store for me. SO after blood levels were assessed, I was assigned to a bed and told to lie down. My nurse wasn't my style. She didn't like talking to me and when I asked her if "donating blood" was like "getting your blood drawn" and she looks at me and goes: "No. The needle is bigger and we take much more blood." Wonderful.

I did it like a champ. Didn't cry. Squeezed the little heart grip ball just like she said. They played good music. 8 minutes later...

Then I get assigned to the snacks table for 15 minutes. They give you this pamphlet to read, my friend Laura was already there. I WAS HOME FREE! Munching on Nutter-butters and pretzels, drinking water, Laura and I were exchanging nurse stories. My arm felt like it got punched and my finger was throbbing, but I made it.

SYKE. The temperature in the room climbed 100 degrees. My hearing got fuzzy, eye sight blurred, I knew these signs all too well. A bell was rung, nurses swarmed. Yep. I pass out at the snacks table.

The bed on rollers and cold towels felt good. I only needed about 15 minutes before I returned back to the snacks table for another 15 minutes to "see how I did." Laura stayed with me. Partly freaked out, partly laughing. I told her this happens sometimes but that I was trying to desensitize myself to it all. What a joke.

Moral of the story, epic fail. I called my mom in Hawaii and she asked me why in the world I would even attempt such a thing. But the important thing is that I TRIED and someone very special is going to enjoy my blood :)

Words to live by

This is what my beautiful roommates taped to our bathroom mirror this morning and I couldn't be more obsessed with it... ♥

"I believe in being strong when everything is going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and I believe in miracles." -audrey hepburn

Happy Belated Valentines Day!

I was going to write a Valentines Day post, but my night class went a little longer than expected and I was not in the “blog worthy” mood. Anyways, Happy belated Valentine’s Day! My day was filled with ceramics, a nature study paper, night class, sushi take-out and the Bachelor J The roomies and I were going to watch The Social Network, but I got back too late and the Bachelor seemed like the timely option.

The Social Network was a vday gift courtesy of my mom! I got quite the holiday package on Friday… 2 swimsuits, nail polish, chocolate, Kristy’s homemade candy popcorn, gum, a DVD, sports bras, and a cute top! I was wondering why the AMAZING package and I chalked it up to it being mom’s first year with both her girls out of the coop ;) I guess she figured she needed to make them extra special since she was surrounded by too much testosterone on the home-front. I also received a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, in a festive Vday vase, AND teddy bear from my father J It was quite the showing, and made me (almost) completely forget I did not have a boy to share it with. Oh well, I am boy-free, drama-free, and LOVING IT. I sing that song, I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T by Ne-yo in the shower daily. Hahahaha

I have just been trucking through the normal senior stuff. Portfolio is in the editing process and I feel like I have a good handle on it. Spring break is in TWO WEEKS and I am excited to head down to Palm Desert to see the grandparents!

OH I almost forgot! I took a breather from Redlands last Friday and headed out to San Diego to visit my friend Jenna for the night! It was SUCH a breath of fresh air, she wined and dined me and it could not have been more perfect. We went to dinner, got drinks, shopped, stood in a relatively short line for Sprinkles cupcakes J and listened to live music at this open bar patio place before I headed back. It was perfect in every way, I want to head back out there soon!

So those are my current happenings. I am working on homework today and then have yoga tonight. I hope everyone had lovely Valentine’s day’s ♥

F is for February Freakout

It's already February?? Well usually I'd be embracing the closeness of spring and all things related, but in senior terms, new month means less time. Less time to figure all this crazy stuff out. And even before the dreaded "G" word, senior portfolio is staring me in the face like the meanest looking shark that ever lived (I say shark only because I find them to be the scariest animal in the world) So that should help to illustrate my feelings about the whole thing.

I feel like I am Judy Bloom in a sea of peers who write fantasy, or sci-fi, or mystery. To say I feel like the black sheep would be an understatement, but after a few good pep talks I am here to talk about how I am embracing it and not how I am hating it. I cut my manuscript down from 106 pages to 96... (they want around 60...) but that's progress! Plus, it will most likely move in a different direction after I meet with my advisors countless times before my March deadline.

This weekend marks the end of my last RUSH! This is my sixth semester and I think I am okay with saying farewell. It is exciting and weird all at the same time but it's definitely a good time. Frat parties don't sound as fun, my weekend tolerance has subsided, and I get exhausted quicker. Man, 21 has opened a whole new can of worms, haha. BUT I'm hanging in there ;) You know you're old when the freshman girls we are looking at are 18... I will be 22 soon.... NOT OKAY.

I threw on the wheel in ceramics yesterday, and after two failed attempts I made a bowl that was decent enough to keep. YAY! I don't know how it will stack up when I compare it to things I am making in April (hopefully!) but for now it is my pride and joy :) I am trimming it tomorrow and will tell you how it goes!

To end, had yoga tonight sans spiders, thank goodness they took the hint and avoided my mat at all costs. I left feeling relaxed and bug-free.

A shout out to my little sister who is battling yet another east coast storm. Hang in there Meg! Good thing Mom and Dad stocked you up on good winter clothes for christmas.... I won't tell you that I wore a sundress to class today.... whoops ;)

When is yoga not relaxing?

I'll tell you when.

There I am. Clear mind. Slightly sweaty. Enjoying the music. We are doing sequences of downward facing dog, coming up to standing, extending our backs, stretching our hamstrings. Then we come back down to plank and push forward onto our mats on our hands, chest leading the way. As we begin to come down to the floor to begin the sequence over again I see it. On the corner of my mat. It is black and looks like a shadow at first. A shadow? I am confused. The music is still playing. I squint. SPIDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I FLY off my mat, changing the energy in the room from calm and zen to panicked and alarmed. Holly is next to me being a good little student and flowing the flow. I almost knock her over in attempts to get closer to the wall thus further from my mat. People are staring. I keep whispering "oh my God, oh my God" and I can't stop. Goodness gracious, I'm not arachnophobic but I sure am close. The teacher has to come over, I explain with hand gestures and point to my mat. I am trying to be quiet but let's be honest, that ship had sailed.

She ends up having to fold my mat up (trapping the horrible creature) and brings it into the hallway, releasing it. She hands me my mat back but all I can picture is "it" crawling all over it, leaving a trail of disgusting germs and totally throwing me off my game.

The whole rest of class I kept feeling things crawling on me. I was just a little bit distracted. A few minutes would go by and I would forget about it. Then I would realize how good I was doing and therefore re-live it. Out of all the mats in class, all 20 or so odd mats, why, Mr. Spider, did you have to crawl onto mine? UGH.

The silver lining? Actually, GOLD lining because it was just that groundbreaking and should in NO WAY be overshadowed my by traumatic episode..... I DID MY FIRST HEADSTAND TODAY. Holly helped me. It was so cool. After months of yoga I thought I had enough built up core strength to try and it was a success :) I was so proud of myself!

So, I'm going to remember this day as the day I did my very first headstand :) and not the day I encountered a creepy crawler. I thought I would share! Now I am showered and exhausted. Goodnight to all!

Nyquil, you treat me well

Well there were a lot of things on the calendar for this weekend but my "allergies" turned into my first headcold of the year. Boo! So instead, I spent the weekend in my apartment. And let me just say, I am amazingly talented at entertaining myself. I watched a few movies--Eat, Pray, Love, The Last Song, Mystic Pizza and caught up on bad TV. I also reorganized my shoes that were turning into the second floor of my closet. Oohh.. I got some work done on my Nature Study paper. It's the science class Hil and I have together and to say it's painful would really be giving it too much credit. Our teacher is pretty OCD when it comes to format, word count, citations, etc. We are going a little nuts. However, ask me anything about langur's (monkeys) that live in central India or what kinds of plants grow in the rainforests in Ghana.... I'm your girl.

I got a little laundry done as well (well, that was the last little bit of expended energy before the cold really hit...) And I slept. A lot. 12 hour nights and two naps on Saturday. I felt like a bear going into hibernation.

Yesterday I spent my entire day in English building for our first all-day editing session for our literary mag that comes out in May. We were reviewing submissions and the writer in me actually didn't mind the long Sunday.

It's going to be in the mid-70's through this week. We have informal rush on Thursday and formal rush on Saturday.

Here's a picture from last weekend... pre-sickness! Senior girls :)

A good Wednesday night

Well, I am becoming more domestic by the day. Today, I opened my first cookbook (Christmas present from my amazing mother) and felt inspired. I decided to make dinner for the roomies. I was going to be good and go to yoga at 630, but the thought of a home cooked meal? It was just too enticing.

On the menu? Jeffory's roasted chicken, asparagus with brown butter, crusty sourdough bread and white wine. The white wine was a perfect choice since the chicken recipe called for a 1/2 a cup in the gravy.

I know how to follow a recipe, la la la. But the timing thing kinda threw me for a loop. When to boil the water for asparagus, when to heat the bread, what it meant by the liquid coming out clear. The brown butter was maybe getting too brown, the chicken had been sitting for a while, should I do anything with the soggy lemons? And Redlands finest grocery store, Vons, didn't carry spanish onions. I spent a good 11 minutes searching the produce section for this particular genre of onion with no avail.

Sans spanish onions....the end result? YUM. The rue I made had the (white) onions, lemon, and garlic that I used to roast with. Then I added chicken stock, dry white wine, a little flour and lots of salt and pepper. The onions got all withered and candied. The asparagus turned out perfectly cooked (even after I left them drying in the sink for too long because the rue was boiling too high and the brown butter was popping....) and the bread, which I accompanied with olive oil dipping sauce, was soo good. I didn't want to get up and tackle the chicken carcass or wrap up the bread so it wouldn't get hard. So I poured myself another glass and enjoyed our cozy apartment, the lit candles and my friends. :)

A good Wednesday night, I'd say.

1201 Party!

Our first delta party of the semester! All our girls who went abroad are back and it feels so good. Today we have a recruitment event from 11-1. Rush starts in two weeks and things are flying by quickly as usual. Its going to be 75 and sunny out today... no complaints :)

Winter break, best friends :)

Happy belated birthday to my favorites, Jackie and Abbie (unfortunately Abbie was all the way in St. Louis and missed the WA celebration...)

♥

Last first day of classes

It kind of has a catchy ring to it, doesn't it? Last. First day. of classes. Ahhhhhh. And the panic begins... haha. Not really. I've been making the daunting transition quite smoother than anticipated (watch me say this and then have a meltdown tomorrow... ha) BUT all things considered, college is college. I've had 3 1/2 years of it and to say I'm starting to get the "real world" itch would be very accurate...

This morning I had Nature Study, my last general ed class requirement. Hilary and I are taking it together, which makes it less painful. We have it at 9:30am which ended up being our first hurdle. Having come off a previous semester of no morning classes and a break of lazy days, we were walking to breakfast like nocturnal creatures confused by the daylight. A half an hour later, armed with mediocre drip coffees courtesy of the commons, we walked into what we thought was going to be a dismal science class-- surprise surprise, not that bad! The class is discussion/lecture based MINUS exams and no text book. No exams? No midterm? Only papers? That, I assure you, I can handle.

Hilary seemed less than thrilled. I do have to say our 73 year old professor, Dr. Smith, was pretty monotone. But he was intriguing enough for my last science class ever and the added gift of no exams makes my life a lot more pleasant. Other classes on the schedule: Lit Mag, Ceramics! (first art class of college!) and my senior cap stone (which is basically taking the raw material I've written of my novel and going through the never ending editing process. Joy.)

I am all about resumes, cover letters, letters of intent, networking, and editing, editing and more editing these days. Not all bad. Quite the change of pace! It is all exciting, at times anxiety ridden, but for the most part I've been filling my days with the prospect of something so new, so soon. LA, Seattle, Portland, San Diego, San Fran? I feel like Where's Waldo... we will see where I pop up :)

My new years resolution? To BLOG MORE. Goodness gracious, lately it's seemed so daunting to click my "blog" bookmark and type away. But I may have forgotten how good it feels to catch up with myself, unwind, and reflect.

I am back to a January of blue skies... this, a year from now (where ever I am), I will miss.