Random Update

Ok, this is totally random, but I just thought this was a good article.

http://www.carm.org/religious-movements/open-theism/logical-refutation-open-theism

School is so busy right now. I'm working on a linguistics research paper right now, and right when I'm done I'll start on my next one, and then right after that I'll work on my Medieval Lit paper, and then after that I'll make my presentation for Christianity & Culture class, and then all sorts of other little assignments will get sprinkled in between. I can't believe only three weeks left, then I'll be on my way home! I have soo many books I can't wait to start reading! This summer is going to be so book-filled, I can't even tell you how excited I am. I'll probably also keep working on the World Literature powerpoints for Dr. Delony's class next semester, and I'll have to contact all the freshmen that are going to be in my Cornerstone class in which I will be the Peer Leader ^_^ I'm pretty excited about that too, since I'll be working with Dr. Delony again. It will be my fourth semester in one of her classes, except this time I won't have to do any classwork, haha! I just have to interact with other students instead... Not what I'm best known for, but it'll be nice to branch out, expand my horizons, and maybe make me a better candidate for Resident Assistant my senior year.

Since I didn't get to be an RA next year, I think I at least got the next best thing: I'll be living in a condo right across the street (yay for walking-distance!) with three friends so that the monthly rent for each of us is $200, plus, the only extra cost is water, everything else is covered by the landlord, sweet! So not so bad at all really. At least I don't have to drive to school, that was the main thing for me. I love living on campus and just being able to walk to class.

Other than just working non-stop for classes, I really haven't been up to much. I am just so ready for this semester to be over, and thankfully after this I will only every have to take about 13 hours a semester to graduate, so no more of this 17 hour load, woohoo! I'll actually have breathing room to interact with my freshmen, and read and write more for pleasure (hopefully)...and that's as far as I'll dare to hope, lol.

Ok, well, back to the research papers for me. Until next time!

Finals

I finished my last week of classes yesterday at 9:50 with Astronomy. My 1:00 class was cancelled because our teacher deliberately finished on Wednesday, which was nice. It also meant that I could go out with Lorie for some fun! First we went to get her haircut, which turned out SO beautiful. I knew she’d look good with short hair, and it makes her look older and more chic. Then we went to a few stores looking for just the right boots for a new dress she has, and fortunately she found them at Ross for less than 20 dollars, which apparently is a bargain. I, on the other hand, rummaged through the clearance rack of dresses and found four that were perfect for me, in more ways than one. First, they are ankle-length. It is so hard to find ankle length dresses! Designers seem to think girls only want knee-length or just-passed-the-knee-length dresses, which is NOT true. But I got a teal and a blue that were the same style, which looks like a mix between a mermaid and an empire, sort of. The tops are a little lacking in support, but I don’t mind. I like the backs too: they’re these cool knit designs. And then the best part was the prices: the teal was $3 and the blue was $5, not sure why they were different. The third dress is a purple tube top, with a kind of gypsy-looking print. Very pretty and summery, and also only $5. I decided not to get the fourth dress, which was a halter top, cotton, blue, and closer to an empire style. I liked it a lot, but it had even less support than the first dresses. So for about $13, I got three dresses for less than what I would have spent on the shipping for one of the amazing handmade hippie dresses I’ve been looking at online. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily think that these Ross dresses are better than the handmade ones, but at least I can HAVE these. At this moment in time I’m not willing to spend upwards of $70 on one item of clothing, no matter how much I love it, and I do absolutely love those hippie dresses.
Well then we got back to the dorm and Lorie took a nap before class, so I went to work on revising my best poems to go into my chapbook that I will turn in with my poetry workshop final on Tuesday. So far it’s going well, though I am getting stuck in a few poems. I also hung out in Mary and Darby’s room for a while and watched Angel with them and Kristin while continuing to work on poetry. That was fun, though not exactly productive, though I’m not sure I would have been any more productive sitting by myself all night, which I usually am, but I just wasn’t feeling up to being alone then.
Overall, I am not worried about my finals. My Astronomy final comprises only questions from the first four tests—nothing new—and since I made 100s on all four of those tests I think I can manage the final. My Lit Crit final is only identification: I’ll read a few paragraphs from different analytical essays and I need to write down which criticism is being used. Simple. But I also have to turn in a portfolio of the analyses I’ve written during the semester with some reflections on what I’ve learned. Also pretty simple, and it’s not due until Monday so I’ve got some time. For poetry I have to make my chapbook, then in the final we will revise a poem he hands us, and read two of our own poems to the class. Hopefully that will go well. My Film final is Monday night and is basically a simple comprehensive multiple choice test, or so I’ve heard, but since I’m not taking that class for a grade I’m not too stressed about it. I don’t have a Bowling final, and my Bible final isn’t until Wednesday and only covers that last amount of information we covered, so after my Lit Crit final on Wednesday morning, I can spend from then until Friday morning studying for that. For now I’m focusing on my poetry chapbook and Lit Crit portfolio, they are my priorities because they require the most thought and effort and are due sooner.
I’m so blessed to have such a laid-back finals week. I know quite a few people who are very stressed, so I know this is a gift, and I’m thankful for it. Now it’s just a matter of me actually sitting down and finishing everything. And Lord willing, Ben and I will be on our way home right after the Bible final on Friday with no heavy traffic, no accidents, no bad weather, and no car problems.

A Lovely Tuesday

So yesterday was pretty much amazing. I'll walk you through my day. I woke up, took a shower, went to the Connections Cafe and chatted with Becky (the lovely lady who works there) for a while then went to sit in my Bible classroom. Class started at 9:30, we took an attendance quiz because about 10 people were gone so we got extra points just for staying in town long enough to show up. We ran through an introduction of Proverbs, and THEN, class got out 45 minutes early. So I came back to the room and played Words With Friends (a scrabble game application on the iphone) for an hour or two. Then I used a meal plan, went to the Campus Store to buy a few drinks for the rest of the week since it'll be closed during the holiday. Then Lorie (my best friend here at ACU) drove me to the hair cutter place, but since I had 50 minutes until my bowling test and there were a few people ahead of us we decided to come back later, so we went to her room and hung out, looking at pretty dresses on eBay and chatting, all the while realizing how amazing it would be for us to live together at some point because we feed off of each other so well. Then I went to bowling, finished the test in less than 10 minutes, and bowled one game in which I gtot a spare the first frame, followed immediately by a turkey!! FINALLY! I have been waiting so long to get a turkey! It was so exciting! In the end I bowled a 156, less than my high score of 160, but still, I got a turkey! If I had just bowled a spare in the 10th frame and gotten my extra pins I would have beated my 160. Oh well. No big deal. I will admit that I say a little prayer every time I step up to the approach, because I figure, God's the one controlling the pins. I mean, I've seen a ton of perfect throws that look like they'll make perfect strikes, and they'll leave one or two pins, or really off throws that end up making strikes. So it's pretty unpredictable, and there's no reason not to incorporate God into all the little aspects of life anyway.

So yeah, after my fabulous game Lorie and I went back to the hair cutters and I got the best hair dresser I've ever had. She was so patient, supportive, and excited for me while she was cutting. We started out a little cautious with my hair, but after a while of going at it with a sharp razor, I finally decided I just wanted her to bring out the clippers and shave it down really short. And she did, using a 1.5 guard in the back, a 2 guard on the sides, and then blended it all in and chopped up the top a little. It turned out so perfectly, and when she looked at it she was like, "I want this haircut now!" ^_^ And the great thing was that the cut only cost 7.95, totally worth it! Her name was Vanessa, I need to remember that, lol. (pictures are on facebook)

So then Lorie and I came back, went to the food court to use our meal plans, then I had to rush off to go to the planetarium for my Astronomy class at 5:30. We learned a little about Uranus, and I remembered how much I like planetariums, sitting in the dome theatre looking up like your looking at the sky and actually seeing all the stars.

Well I got back at 7 and hung out with Lorie the rest of the night, which was wonderful. She bid on a dress on eBay that is super cute and won it at around 10. I spent the whole time looking at handmade hippie dresses, which are soooooooo gorgeous! And if I was rich I would buy them all. I want that to be my style now! It also inspired me to make my own dresses, but I'd have to learn how to sew and make dresses first. It would be so worth it though. And if Lorie and I live together, we are definitely going to make our own clothes, and have tea parties, and be all free-spirited and artsy and read and listen to music constantly, oh goodness, sounds like heaven! So if we don't get hired as RAs, there is still an upside to look forward to! While I would love to be an RA and get paid to live in the dorm, I won't feel bad if I don't because being Lorie's housemate will be amazing. ^_^

Ok, so at around 10:45 Lorie went to bed because she has work at 5am (which is where she is now), so I went to my room, but for some reason I could NOT fall asleep. I don't think I drifted off until around 1, but the next thing I know it's 3:25 and I'm wide awake. So I took a shower, and got on my computer to pass the time. And now I am listening to music while Lorie is at work watching Spirited Away, and now that I'm finished with this post I can chat with her on Facebook or something, lol.

So that's my fabulous yesterday, and now it's time for Thanksgiving Break! I have a few things I want to do, but nothing school related since I have no homework whatsoever, and no finals to study for. Woohoo! Free time!

God is So Good

He really is. I am so blessed. Being here in this school is so amazing, all the opportunities I have and resources I have are incredible, I have a wonderful supportive loving family, and then I also get little surprise blessings along the way that I didn’t expect. Yesterday I bought a diet 7Up from the Campus Store using the Bean Bucks that I am required to have because of the meal plan I am required to have as a student who lives on campus. It was 84 cents. (I had to pay about $1270 for the meal plan, and I get 7 meals/week along with 100 Bean Bucks/semester). Well, the bottle said there was a code under the cap, so, having time to waste I decided to go ahead and type in the code online. Well, lo and behold, I hit the “submit” button and instead of the “Sorry, you do not have a winning code at this time” page that I was expecting to pop up, what greets me is “You’ve Won!” Well that woke me up. Apparently my code won me a $50 gift card for gas! Well I was so excited a made a little yelping noise and the woman next to me in the store started celebrating with me. So I clicked the “Claim Prize” button and then was told the card should arrive in the mail within 6-8 weeks. I mean, seriously, who would ever expect something like that to happen? God is just awesome like that, sprinkling in little fun gifts in people’s lives when they seem so dull and monotonous. So I’d say it was worth 84 cents to buy that one little soda.
But even if I hadn’t won, I know that God is good. Way better than good even. He is ___ (Fill in the blank with any and all magnificent adjectives). And HE IS. I love my life right now. I am so blessed, so blessed, I am spilling over with blessings. I mean, I get down every now and then, but as the Audio Adrenaline songs says, He picks me up again. School is going well overall, I love my classes and my professors (I love that word, it makes me feel like I’m in Harry Potter, lol). This place is just so encouraging, I feel like the entire world is open to me. I’m going to take Japanese classes next year, and I also have an opportunity to come back during the summer and help teach Japanese high school students English, and there is also a missional interest meeting next week that includes missions to Japan, and my Old Testament teacher specifically mentioned to me two people in the Bible Department who have a special interest in Japan that he could get me in touch with. All these things just suddenly appeared to me last week! And it all sounds so exciting! I’ve had an interest in Japanese culture for a long time now, and now it really seems like learning it, the language, going to the actual country – all of it seems like a possible reality now. I never dared to entertain the thought, it always seemed more like a fanciful dream or a hobby at most. This is just amazing, nothing seems too out of reach anymore.
Then again, that’s God’s whole message isn’t it? Nothing is impossible with Him.
God is so good!

Towers fall and kingdoms crumble
Mountains bow and the earth will tremble
At the sound of Your Name
Strong men fall as to him who humbles
The plans he made were bound to stumble
And only You remain, only You remain
Oh oh
(Sound of Your Name - Above the Golden State)

Ending The Summer

Well, this is it, I'm back at school and classes start in the morning. I realize I left a big gap between now and my last post during the summer, and looking back I guess I could have written a bit more, but overall I wasn't doing anything that seemed worth mentioning, just staying at home and relaxing, reading, writing, watching old movies, just being in the house and soaking in the scenery. The summer was so long, and I could have handled a lot more time as I was, but I don't mind being back. In fact, I love being here. ACU is such a great fit for me, it's just the traveling time and packing time in-between that I could live without.

My trip back to school was uneventful, no accidents or traffic stops or cops pulling me over (I never once went over the speed limit this time :), and I managed to get to school in 6 hours and 14 minutes exactly, even with a 15 minute break. I pulled into a parking space right at 2:00pm and started unloading some stuff, and the first person I met was Lorie, which made me happy. It was nice to see her again, and then I got into the room and Alex had already set up her side of the room. I eventually was able to see (and hug) Kristin, Janille, Mary, Darby, and Stephanie, and get a little caught up. Apparently I wasn't the only one who changed her hair color over the summer, so it was cool seeing everyone's new looks, and peaking in on their rooms. As expected, Mary and Darby have a very comfortable, homey space, just like their last room, only bigger and better able to hold all their stuff. :)

I really like my room, it feels a lot like my old one in McDonald, except there is a little more space to fit an extra person. Otherwise it's pretty neat, clean, organized, simple, just the way I like it. Alex is so sweet and down-to-earth, I think we'll get along great (which is why I was so happy she agreed to be my roommate, I had a good feeling about her...). I really hope all of us who signed up together are able to stay close. It feels weird not having the lobby right outside our doors like we're used to having, so I hope that doesn't keep us from getting together a lot. I miss McDonald, but Sikes has a lot of good qualities. It feels so much like a hotel, including having our own bathrooms in each room. That should be a nice change, not that having community bathrooms bothered me, but it'll be nice to not have to walk down the hall anymore just to use a toilet in the middle of the night. And Alex brought a TV with her, so there's a TV in my room this time. That'll take some getting used to also. But whatever. It's nothing to complain about really, just something different.

I think I'm going to like my schedule this semester, it's a lot like last semester, except I have two classes on Friday instead of one (oh darn, isn't that just awful??? :P lol). I hope my Film Appreciation class on Monday nights will be more endurable than Lifetime Wellness was. I'll be watching movies instead of doing physical activities from 6-10. And hopefully I can survive slam poetry at the beginning of my Poetry Workshop class, I despise public speaking, but it's just something I have to do I guess. Lord, give me strength and courage... It's actually supposed to be something that gets everyone revved up and excited, but for me it's terrifying. I'm more of the silent-writer type.

Besides classes I have a lot of things to take care of, getting paperwork for scholarships and insurance and that kind of thing. I'll find time for it, I just wish I could get it all done in one day, but I know there will be some waiting involved. Oh well, what can you do? Just have to take things as they come. I'm really praying that I can be calm this semester. I mean, it'll be weird not being stressed all the time - I feel like that's wired into my personality - but I at least want to be able to be excited and happy about what I'm doing and not just worried that I'm not doing it well enough. I want to be able to live like today is my last day and really enjoy each moment, like those people with terminal illnesses. I want to see all the little things and have my priorities straight, and do all the things I want to do without worrying about doing things I feel I "have" to do. I really feel in my element when I'm writing, that's when I am the most comfortable, so I want to be able to write for a living, even if it doesn't seem like the "best" job to have, I love the feeling I get when I just sit down and start typing away, and I would do that for the rest of my life if I find the opportunity, even if it didn't pay large amounts of money. Isn't doing what you love more important than that? That's what I keep hearing. I don't want my life to turn into one more mistake or regret or missed opportunity. And if that's going to happen I have to stop worrying about everything. I have to trust God, trust that He will provide and take care of me no matter what, even when I'm terrified I have to cling to Him over everything else. In the end, He is all I have, and I need to remember that. I need to trust Him, listen to Him, love Him, and live for Him. That's all I can do. I just need a lot of help doing it, because I can't even do any of that without Him.

Ok, well, that's all I have for tonight. Tomorrow starts my life's next chapter titled Sophomore Year, The Adventure Continues.

Acapella

As you are all well aware, I absolutely LOVE my school. Part of me is sad to leave for the summer just because I'm so used to it here, but I'm also excited to see my family again soon. Well anyway, ACU is a Church of Christ affiliated school so they do not believe in using instruments for worship which makes for an interesting experience. I'm used to it by now, and in fact I think the ACU praise team sings beautifully, which is why I just had to make a post about it. I wanted to just upload a sound recording, but apparently this blog only allows pictures and videos, so I had to make a video. The song is "As The Deer" and I love it, I can't get enough of it. ^_^ Hope you guys like it too! Love you all and God bless!

Awesome Day

So, over the weekend, Monday, and Tuesday I was really busy:
Write a 7 page book review for World Religions
Prepare a powerpoint presentation on Feng Shui for World Religions
Write a script for a group film project in Honors Arts Seminar, and meet Mon and Tues night with said group
Create a flyer to advertise my fridge that I'm getting rid of
Write a 4 page paper on Romans
Study for my Bible test
Study for Lifetime Wellness test
Finish Walking for Fitness take-home test
Read Don Quixote and type up an LA

So, with plenty to do, I have been going non-stop for the last four days. Not only that, but I didn't have my laptop because there was something wrong with it, so I gave it to Team55 (school tech team) to look it over and they fixed it, but I didn't get it back until Monday. But anyway, I was busy over the weekend, put up my flyer in Sunday, got my computer back on Monday, turned in my Romans paper on Monday, met with my group that night after taking my Lifetime Wellness test, spent any freetime getting my settings back on my computer the way I want them (because they had to reformat it so everything was like new again). Then Tuesday came and I spent any freetime studying for my Bible test, then met with my group again that night where I showed them the script I had written-- they loved it ^_^. Then Wednesday came and I took the test that morning, gave my Feng Shui presentation after Chapel, then went to Arts where there was a class peer review over the scripts. I was nervous about that, but it turned out to be great. My teacher is the one that really intimidates me, always asking for "brilliant" responses. So he put my script up on the big screen and everyone read it, and then wrote down peer review comments. He walked over to the group to our side and said, "So what did you think?" and one of the guys was like, "It...was...AMAZING! Who wrote it??" So I raised my hand quietly, and then the teacher came over and nodded saying, "It was, really good." And I was like, OMG! He LIKED it!!!! WHOA!!!! I was totally taken aback. I mean seriously, that made everything in that whole class worth it, that moment right there, a COMPLIMENT on something I wrote, just like that, was just, whoa, omg, best day ever. And that came right after my World Religions teacher telling me I did a great job on my Feng Shui presentation. So I mean, wow, great day! And then I spent the rest of the day finishing reading Don Quixote, starting and finishing my Literary Analysis, and still getting to bed before 11PM.
So then today, Thursday, I went to English, turned in my LA, got two back that I had turned in earlier (both 5/5, yay!), and then had the rest of the day to myself because my Walking class was cancelled since tomorrow is the start of Easter break (we actually get to call it "Easter Break" here on a Christian campus, ha!). Right when class ended, I got a phone call from a girl saying she saw that I was selling my fridge and was wondering if she could come look at it! I mean, as if my day couldn't get any better! So I went to lunch with a friend, and then at 1PM I met the girl and her mom at my dorm room and showed them my fridge, and they agreed to buy it, at which point I offered my microwave as well, and they agreed to take it too! So I sold both appliances that I don't need anymore (we're going to use my roommate's next year) and that I had been wondering what the heck I was going to do with. So after that, I went to work writing my Culture Event essay for Arts class and finished it, so yay for that, and now everything is just totally chill. Amazing! God has blessed me so much this week, I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am. God has done wonderful things for me, I'm just in awe. Every good thing I get I know is from Him, but I know that no matter what happens, good or bad, I will give Him the glory. Sometimes I think all these good things happening to me now are preparing me for some big trial in the future. I feel like He wants me to feel grateful for the good now and to build me up so that I say "I will be grateful in all circumstances, good or bad" so that when I get into the bad situations I will have to remember the good things and remember what I said during them. That's what it feels like. So if that is the case, I definitely hope I am able to keep my word and keep giving Him the glory even in my struggles and trials.
Anyway, now it is a three-day weekend and I am so high on God's blessings, it's incredible. My friend Sarah let me borrow a book over the weekend so I will be reading that. Hopefully I will finish it. I know I definitely can, I just have to actually read it, and with all the time I have now (seeing as how all my busy-ness finished on Wednesday) I'm sure I will. The book is "The Parable of the Sower". I'll let you know what I think of it when I finish.
I love you all, and I pray God blesses you on this Easter holiday!!!

It's Over

Well, that's it, Spring Break is done and over. Sigh. I don't want to get back to the real world yet, I had such a nice break, just hanging out with new people, staying up late every night, getting to know Shannon and Christina, watching movies, laying around, staying inside when it was wet and yucky. Sigh. I'm not ready to get back to work. I thought I was going to be upset by having to move out of my own room, but it turned out to be a blessing. I met some really nice people, I hung out in a wide open lobby most of the time so I didn't feel isolated, alone, and cramped. I had fun. I interacted with people and shared some things about myself with people who were actually interested in getting to know me. I admit I didn't get nearly as much done as I had been hoping to, but you know, I at least had a good time. I got a good chunk of things done in any case. I'm still hoping to take these last hours of Sunday to finish some things on my Romeo and Juliet paper, and hopefully mom will call with some taxes info that I need. But all in all, I liked my break, and I wish it could continue.

I'm so happy because I got to talk to my grandma and grandpa through Skype for a whole hour! It was WONDERFUL to see their faces while we spoke, I miss seeing them so much. And later today I will hopefully get to do the same with dad! I had such an amazing time with him when he was here, it'll be great to see his face and hear his voice again. I love him so much.

Well, I guess I will get back to my Romeo and Juliet paper. Sigh. My teacher really intimidates me. I don't know what he'll like or hate. He always seems unimpressed and irritated, even though he's always smiling. It's unnerving. Makes me anxious. I am not looking forward to turning in this paper at all, and it's only because of him. All he ever wants is "brilliance" but I'm not really sure what would count as brilliance. And besides, it's a 6-8 page paper, and I could write a 15 page paper with all the things I want to say! This is hard... I can't wait for this class to be over with.

Stupid Spring Break!

So I am staying at ACU for Spring Break with high hopes of getting a lot of work done. I have several different projects/papers to be working on and books to be reading, and just for my own sake I'm going to remind myself of what they are:

Pauline Ethics paper
Read Muslim on Christian Road
Book review on the book
Watch all the different versions of Romeo and Juliet then
Romeo and Juliet paper
Study for World Lit by rereading the texts
File a new FAFSA
File my taxes
Start my presentation on Feng Shui
Read book on the early Roman church

That's all I can think of right now, and that might be it. In any case, it's a lot, but I'm ready to do it all, starting tomorrow, Friday. Unfortunately, I found out LAST NIGHT that I will be forced to remove myself from my dorm hall because there will be no staff available to man the desk, and therefore it is unsafe for me to be in the hall all week. Therefore, I am being relocated to the dorm building next to mine where there WILL be a staff member manning the desk, and I will be put into an empty room and have to drag anything and everything that I will need during the whole break across the street into the room just like I had to do over Thanksgiving, which is just irksome and inconvenient on so many levels I can't even think about it without clenching up out of fear of saying something rude.
I mean, seriously, I want to stay in my own room!!!!!! All of my stuff is there! If I find out half way through the week that I forgot something, then that's just too bad, so sad, sorry about that! GRRR!!! I don't want to have to pack up all my stuff and move it, that's one of the good points about staying at the school! But oh nooooo, they're going to make me do it anyway because they're liable if something awful happens to me while I'm by myself. Jeez, that's just aggravatingly annoying. I just... UGGHHH!!! This SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! Stupid stupid STUPID!!!!!!! *stomps around waving hands in frustration* I! HATE! THIS! SO! MUCH!

Oh well, I guess things can't be perfect anyway.

On another note, I was looking over the classes I want to take the rest of my college career and I'm so many things: nervous, intimidated, excited, interested, scared, hopeful. There are so many great sounding classes that I would love to take, but I am so scared that I will not be able to keep up with them all and that they will be hard and I will lower my GPA and lose my scholarship, and I just can't let that happen. I would do so much to keep my scholarship. I hate feeling like it isn't mine. I only have it as long as I keep my GPA at a certain level, and so it isn't a definite thing, which I hate. There's so much uncertainty and so much pressure to keep my grades up that I can't just relax and enjoy myself and my classes. I choose my classes wondering, "Will this class be too hard? Is taking this class risking my GPA?" And I don't want to have to worry about that! I worked so flippin hard during high school to GET this scholarship, and now that I have it, I STILL have to keep working just to keep it! I hate that too! I just want to HAVE it, I don't want there to be conditions attached, that just makes me anxious and unfocused and disturbed. I wish I had a billion dollars or something, so I could know beyond a doubt that I could afford college, and afford the rest of my life. But I don't, I can't be sure of anything. Oh God, please please PLEASE God, help me keep this scholarship, PLEASE!! I'm so scared...

Love you guys! Hope you're doing well!

2009 Review

Ok, so I realize it has been over a month since I posted anything, so let me see if I can come up with something informative and brilliant to put up.

First of all, I found a thing on this blog site that lets me add email addresses to send notices that I have updated my blog, so hopefully that works. To those whose email I added, let me know if you got a notice.

Second, I am loving my semester right now. Here are my classes:
Honors Acts to Revelation
World Religion
World Liturature
Honors Seminar in the Arts
Lifetime and Wellness (kind of like a high school health class that teaches the basics of how to stay healthy your whole life)
Walking for Fitness (we are required to take 3 activity courses to graduate, and this is my first)

It is more reading than I had to do last semester, but it seems like less stress or work, mostly because I am not in my Cornerstone class that required the volunteer servive and the 15 oage research paper/project. Plus, I like the reading we are doing. I do have outside assignments for my Seminar in the Arts class: I have to go to five different artistic presentations in the community and then write 2-3 page response papers on each one. My teacher in that class has a habit of saying he wants us to say something "brilliant" for everything. That's his only criteria. Hopefully I can come up with brilliance at his standard.

I am also happy that I am not working this semester. It really takes off a lot of stress involving time management. I was thinking of applying to be a Resident Assistant, but I don't want to feel like I am torn between school and work. Besides, if I stay focused on school and do well I will graduate a semester early at least so I don't have to worry about getting money to pay for four whole years, just three and a half. The sooner I get out the less I have to pay for school, and the better I am able to do in school, the sooner I get out.

I have decided that I will look to get a "practical" job in publishing or something of that nature while I continue to aspire to write novels. That will give me something to tell people when they ask me what I plan on doing with my degree. It's funny that 95% of people assume I want to teach when I tell them I am an English major. I never would have put those two together. To me, if you are an English major, you like to read and write, so therefore you must want to write. There are teaching and education majors for people who want to teach. But I guess that's just my own way of thinking. *shrug*

I also really like that in my World Religions class we don't take quizzes over the chapters like is normally done in other classes. It takes a lot of pressure off and lets me actually enjoy what I am reading without worrying "OMG what am I supposed to know from all of this? What's he going to ask me about on the quiz???" I appreciate that. And also I am pretty sure I am the only Freshman in the class, because it is a class for Juniors and Seniors, but because of all the credit hours I have I am allowed to take it (SCORE!).

The ice days we got on Tuesday and Wednesday were nice. The weather was amazing on Wednesday, absolutely beautiful with all the white everywhere. Tuesday was more irritating and inconvenient since every car was frozen over and unable to go anywhere, but other than that it was nice to be inside in the warmth and know that it was in the low 20s outside. Then it was nice to go outside for a while, freeze, then come back inside to melt. I really liked that part.

I really hope to get a summer job. I don't have anything specific in mind, but of course ideally I would like something that pays well (not that I am holding any high expectations on that one). I also don't think I would mind if I had a night job like at Walmart or Kroger, during the time when there is almost nobody there, and be the one who restocks and organizes the items on shelves. OMG that would be wonderful... Getting paid to organize things, ah! Dream come true!

And just FYI, I am writing this blog on the Dell MINI laptop that I rented from our school library, so if there are any errors in this entry it is because my hands are cramped together over this tiny and adorable keyboard. I love this thing, it is so cute, but I think I will stick with something "normal" sized. Which reminds me, in our Campus Store they have the Mac section where you can play with every kind of Mac available, and last weekend I was in there using the MacBook Pro. Oh my goodness, that thing was amazing. I probably wouldn't buy one even if I had the 2000 dollars because I could use that money for something more necessary but my goodness, it was wonderful. I would love to just have one, you know? The material it was made of is great because you don't get hand oil all over it when you touch it, which I appreciate. I hate glossy sleek technology items that immediately get all smudgy when you touch them. I like things to keep looking new and clean for a long time.

Well, I think that is enough for now. I hope the email notice thing works so that everyone can see when I put up a new post. I love you all and hope your January 2009 was a great introduction into the new year. Much love!!!!

Kaleigh

Major Change

I just finished my jogging class. I did a mile in 9:30, which isn't as good as my time when I was a sophomore, but whatever, it's not bad. I enjoyed it, the feeling of just going and going, and I'm proud of myself for keeping my steady pace the whole time. ^_^ Even in the heat, I survived, lol.

Well, I'm really happy right now, I changed my major this morning to English, so yay! No more Psychology for me. I can't believe how relieved I feel about it right now, I feel like I'm excited about college again. I feel like I can actually enjoy myself now. I felt so much stress and pressure at the thought of the Psychology track I was on, because I'm not a science person and I didn't want to dedicate all of my time here to a subject that I would have hated, like research and testing and that kind of thing, so now I'm thinking of a writing profession, which I've always wanted anyway since I was a baby, and if I combine with a Spanish minor I could do translations as well. Whatever, it's all good, I'm just glad to finally feel like I'm ready for something. I feel like this is a much better fit for me.

P.S. Here's a pic of me sporting my oh-so-glamorous jogging outfit. Clearly college gym suits are no better than high school suits, lol.