Challenge Creates Productivity

Today was probably the most productive day I've had all semester.
Nice to see that my determination showed up riiiiiight at the tail end of things. :/

Anyway, I went to all my classes (gasp!), pretty sure I did well on my Italian quiz.
I can now command people to do things. Right on.

Let me preface this next bit with a bit of background: In my typography class, we were all asked to create our own original font based on an inspiration assigned to us by the professor. Then, we had to bring the font onto the computer and create the letters in photoshop. Then, we would be assigned someone else's font to create samples with (ie- make words, sentences, whatever...). So basically, we were going to work on the samples today which I figured would be easy peasy.. just a simply copy-paste job.

No.

I come into class and my lovely (-cough-) professor tells me he has a surprise for me that I am going to love. I told him that I was quite sure that I would not like any sort of surprise he could give me. He laughed at me and left the room to return moments later with a large box. The only phrase that came to mind was "fuck my life". I was given the most difficult and involved font to work with. Why is it so difficult? Because the girl's inspiration was "Do It Yourself" projects. So I had to use her molds to create the letters out of wire, photograph them individually and bring them into the computer myself. SO much more work than anyone else has to do.

I asked to leave class early so I could go buy said wire and get started right away since the samples are due on Wednesday.

Moral of the Story: I kicked that font's ass. I guess my professor finally pissed me off enough to get me to do something all in one go. As we know, the key to get me to do most anything is to piss me off (and if it challenges me at the same time, then right on).

So I'm done with it already. What up productivity. Nice to see you again.

I got a lot of work done for my other design class too, though I still have a couple more things to finish up for that before its totally done.

So suck it, Graphic Design.
I rock.

- synthesis movie edits
- Do typeface specimens
- Archive typography work
- Edit comic, gig posters
- Finish City of God, Blade Runner projects
- Finish 'See what I'm Saying' projects
- Italian Quiz
- Psych Quiz
- Atmospheric Science homework/labs
- Italian Oral Exam
- Psych Final
- Atms Final

Oh, and I made dinner tonight, too.
Zing.

Oh, oh. Here is something for laughs.

Weekend Shenanigans

Well, it was really only Friday that was full of shenanigans, but you know, one day like that counts for the whole weekend for me these days. We had a party at the house, an outer space theme so I put on a sparkly dress and called myself a galaxy all night.

Played beer pong with jungle juice. I do not recommend this to anyone.
Especially when the juice has way too much gem clear in it.

Anyway, we had a fog machine, black lights, strobe lights, disco lights... it was intense.
I got quite silly and ended up going to sleep around two, but the nonsense continued for awhile even after I fell asleep. I could hear it, haha.

The squirrels living above my ceiling are quite lively these days, running around and growling, fighting... its really noisy. One of them like crashed into something last night and woke me up. Freaked the hell out of me. I'm kind of learning to live with them, though. I might name them soon.

Two more days of class :)

- synthesis movie edits
- Do typeface specimens
- Archive typography work
- Edit comic, gig posters
- Finish City of God, Blade Runner projects
- Finish 'See what I'm Saying' projects
- Italian Quiz
- Psych Quiz
- Atmospheric Science homework/labs
- Italian Oral Exam
- Psych Final
- Atms Final

The End of Semester To-Do List.

And so we're here.
The obligatory to-do list.
6 more days of class, then two finals and I'm out of here!


- Finish synthesis movie edits
- Do typeface specimens
- Archive typography work
- Edit comic, gig posters
- Finish City of God, Blade Runner projects
- Finish 'See what I'm Saying' projects
- Italian Quiz
- Psych Quiz
- Atmospheric Science homework/labs
- Italian Oral Exam
- Psych Final
- Atms Final

Also: All Christmas shopping. I haven't done any yet, basically. D:
My family is so hard to shop for its not even funny.

I am a Culinary Goddess

So, yesterday was the APX Thanksgiving dinner, one of my favorite events of fall semester.
I was in charge of cooking our 3 giant turkeys.
I have never before in my life cooked a turkey, let alone three. I felt so dumb haha. Of course, no one else knew how either so it was the blind leading the blind and telling the other blind person to google it.

But... with no experience... they turned out DELICIOUS and looked like they had come straight out of a magazine. Needless to say I was proud of myself and gloating all night about it. Can't help it. When you make something that big for like 40 people you get a bit of an ego about it. :)

Unfortunately, I was sooo full... I fell asleep before the beer olympics that followed even started. Perhaps that was a blessing in disguise. God saying, "No, Katie, you really need to go to class tomorrow and not be a hungover mess when you drive your friends home afterwards."or perhaps God was saying, "No, Katie. People don't want to be put to shame by your skills at drinking games too, tonight. The turkey was enough."

I'm sure nothing God had to say last night was about the fact that underage drinking is illegal. I like to think he's cool like that.

Today, I finally get to venture home for a glorious week of relaxation. Well, some relaxation. Some work for turning in my final design projects. Well, lots of work. But, hopefully it will also be filled with Christmas shopping, thanksgiving cooking, and snuggling with my big smelly dog. I'm a bit scared about cooking large amounts of food for the family with him in the kitchen, though, since he can get himself up and get things off the counter. My mother was cooking the other day and had to do something in another room. She literally took ALL of the food with her so that he wouldn't get at it while she was gone, 'cause goodness knows he would have gotten dinner.

Glad I wasn't there, I'm no help in those situations because it just makes me laugh. Silly puppy.

Aaand... time for class.

T-Minus 7 days 'till BREAK!

I am so so excited. In a mere seven days I will be on my way home for a glorious week of break. I can't wait :)

Right now I am cleaning my room so that my mother doesn't get all crazy when she and dad come down tomorrow for the dad's weekend football game. Gonna have to help clean the house too for the cookout and stuff. It'll be fun and actually pretty warm, which is awesome.

That means there's more of a chance that we'll stay for the whole game. If it got cold I'm sure my mom (and probably me after like.. halftime) would want to leave early. I usually try to stay for the whole game unless we're losing really bad or I'm really really cold. Obviously, because this football season has sucked so hard, I haven't stayed for a whole game save for like.. two. Sad.

Anyway, this week my partner and I are going to knock out our final project for Typography and then that nightmare of a class will be basically over, thank god.

This semester is winding down and I couldn't be more happy for it.
Soon enough, soooooon enough.

PS- There is something living in the ceiling above my bedroom and it is starting to freak me the hell out. I think its a squirrel or something. It sounds bigger than a mouse. Its always running around and scratching and squeaking, especially at night but now during the day too.

Must find the boys and have them look into it for me.

Getting Back to Normal-ish

So, things have improved some since my last post.
Its been a rough couple of weeks for sure, but I'm slowly coming to terms with what happened. Its one of the most difficult things in the world to lose a friend.

I went home for the weekend on the following Thursday, skipped class on Friday and went to the wake and funeral. It was one of the hardest [if not THE hardest] things I've ever had to do, ever. Nothing compares to it. It just sucks, for lack of better term.

We still don't really know what happened. The initial autopsy was pretty much inconclusive so they sent away for more info. Either his brain or his heart, hopefully we'll hear soon. I think we all need some sort of closure to really accept it.

Its just so strange to think that Vince isn't going to be around anymore.

No more ridiculous stories, no more dumbass stunts, no more teasing me, no more drinking contests or great hugs or general nonsense.

Still. Its slowly getting easier.

In better news... I got a B on my midterm critique.
I was shocked. I thought that at the very most I would get a C. I honestly thought it would be even lower than that. I actually have a shot at an A- in Typography which shocks me but now I'm really going to try to go for it.

I still have a shit ton of stuff to get done for other classes, but I'm hoping that I can manage it. I've been sleeping so much these days its like all I want to do. Not necessarily because I'm depressed, I'm just always tired. Maybe I'm anemic. I'm always cold too, haha. I'm always piling on the layers, seriously. Jeans, boots, sweatshirt, north face.. Sooo sad.

Time to start the count down to Thanksgiving break, though.
I have NEVER been more in need of or excited for a break. I'm so worn out and exhausted by this semester. Seriously.

That, and I love Thanksgiving.
[and I get to have two Thanksgivings!! APX Thanksgiving which is deeeeelicious and ridiculous and always followed by beer olympics and Family Thanksgiving which is always fun and increasingly ridiculous as each year passes.]

The Worst Day Ever

I'm pretty convinced today was the worst day ever.
I don't know that anything else is going to be able to top it for a long, long time.

This morning I set off back to school after a really nice weekend home. Everything was going alright until I got pulled over around Rantoul for going 73 in a 65. How stupid is that? I was lucky, though. The cop was nice and just gave me a warning, so I plan on... not telling my parents about this one. Never been pulled over for speeding before this and I always figured if I did it'd be for going like... 90. 73? Whatever.

Then, I got back to school. I missed my first class, because I was late after being pulled over. I went about my day as usual when I get a text from like 3 different people in my frat telling me to come home from class immediately, that there was an emergency. In my rush home, I tripped and fell into the gravel. How graceful.

I left class and when I got home, the entire chapter was there, as well as some police officers. One of my very dear friends and frat brothers had passed away that morning. No one knows what happened. He was out for a jog and he just collapsed and died. Vince was the last person I'd ever expect this to happen to. He was a smart kid, active.. in good shape. He didn't do drugs, got good grades, played rugby... Sure, he could party hard, but he wasn't stupid.

The next couple of hours were spent crying, hugging, crying some more and just being shocked, which I still am. I went to a church with some of my other frat brothers. Sure, it was catholic, but I just needed somewhere to pray so I went. Since then, I've just been crying off and on and feeling sick to my stomach. I'm just shocked and kind of scared. It could have been any of us.

This kid who was just texting me on Saturday night and making fun of me is no longer here. I'm still kind of expecting him to show up at the house and be like "Haha, hey guys. Just kidding about that whole dying thing."

Vince, you're such a jerk for leaving us like this.
You were so looking forward to turning 21 on Friday... I hope they give you a huge party up in heaven. Your happiness and enthusiasm were contagious and your laughter infectious. Your shenanigans always amused me and the house will never, ever be the same without you. Rest in peace, man.

The rest of this week is going to be very difficult, but somehow I just need to keep going. Life is precious and we all need to make the very best of the time we have. If this ordeal has taught me anything it is that we should all be grateful for our lives and everything that we have, because you just never know.

Its Over! Its Over!

Critique is over!
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be :)
Of course, I haven't gotten my grade yet but I still feel pretty good about things.

I have NOTHING due tomorrow.
Wow.

So, for the first time in almost two weeks I am going to bed before 2am!

Life is good :)

[Until the next critique, of course.]

Critique Blues

I hate critiques.
I hate them so much.
Especially when I have an instructor that has incredibly unrealistic expectations and classmates who seem to be able to meet those expectations with no problems while I'm struggling.

Do I think I'm capable of being a designer?
Yes.

Does it still make me feel like crap?
Yes.

I think its just because I'm super overwhelmed right now. I need a break so badly. My brain can't process all of the things that I have to do and thus I run out of ideas and can't come up with new ones. When I'm as stressed as this its hard to make myself do the work that I know I need to do.

I have a midterm critique next Wednesday.
I'm going to be evaluated by pros and I don't feel like my stuff is up to snuff. That is stress right there. Pure stress.

I don't know what else I would do if I didn't do graphic design. Its just hard to have a major that makes you feel horrible on a daily basis.

I'll get over it, though. I swear.
I just need to get past these next couple of weeks so I can finally have a break.


Currently I Want:
- A hot bath
- Stir Fry or any other decent food
- An evenly heated room
- Snow
- For Typography to disappear
- Sleep
- Sleep
- Sleep
- A very large cocktail
- IDEAS

X-Acto Knives

Let me just start off by saying this:

The very last thing an exhausted and frustrated art student should be using is an x-acto knife.

That being said:

OW.

So far I've poked myself in two different fingers, put a nice scratch on my thumbnail and made a little slice in the top of my hand. None intentional. At least none of them bled too much as x-acto cuts usually do. Seriously. I have so many projects going on right now its borderline disgusting. I feel like its time for another list.

This week:
- Typeface designs A - P finished for Wednesday
- Drawings of typeface inspiration due for Wednesday
- Projection experiment due for Wednesday
- Comic book sketches due Tuesday
- Psych Midterm Tuesday
- Pledge Education night on Wednesday [must attend because I have a pledge kid]
- Dinner with pledge kid
- Work on typography papers for Wednesday
- Acetone Transfer for Monday
- Gig Poster sketches for Thursday
- Cleaning house for Homecoming on Thursday
- Apartment hunting
- Drinking and Debauchery on the weekend [aka Football and Alums w/ alcohol]


So clearly this is going to be a busy week. Some of it will be fun like apartment hunting with the boys [yup, I'm living with 3 guys next year] and football on the weekend but life is basically going to suck until Wednesday. After Wednesday I can relax until.... eh, next Monday? Sort of?

Sheet Music

I want to buy some new sheet music...

We have a piano in the house and I want to use it. Its a super old piano and I doubt its been tuned within the last fifteen years, but it still works. Maybe I'll see if I can petition to get it tuned. It could really use it and I bet there are others in the house that would like to see it tuned as well. There are some other piano players in here, some better than me since I'm so desperately out of practice.

I remember back during my horrendous freshman year of college I would go down and lock myself in a practice room in the basement of my dorm for a couple of hours at a time just so I could get away from my room and my roommate. There was a piano in each practice room, but they were less cool than the one we have at the house... still, they were tuned haha.

Anyway, just random thoughts. I figured I would post to pass the time until the Grey's Anatomy premier later. I'd take a nap... but for some reason I just don't feel like it today. I was so tired this morning and had such a bad headache.. but now I have energy and am super awake. Guess thats not a bad thing. Probably due to the delicious espresso royale oolong tea I am currently drinking. Yum. Perfect for a rainy day.

On another note: Rainy days should stick around until the first frost. It makes the aphids go away : )

Sometimes life kicks you right in the balls.

Today started off as a pretty good day.
I was running late for class, but still managed to make it in time to get my caffeine fix beforehand. Aphids weren't too bad this morning, though I still had at least ten of them stuck to various parts of me by the time psych started [not to mention the one I fished out of my eye, ew!].

Still, it wasn't bad.
I had lunch, which was good. I don't always have time for that.

Of course, then I got outside and it was pouring rain.
Well, lucky me I remembered my umbrella. Of course.. I was wearing shorts and flip flops and it had gotten cooler outside. I made it to class pretty wet from the waist down, but still not entirely in a bad mood. My mood worsened over the course of class because I was freezing the whole time, but I was convinced I would get over it.

After class I walked home warmer and happier and stopped at my car to get my laundry that I had left in there. From there... it all went to hell. First, I slipped and fell into a mixture of mud and drywall dust... and so did my laundry. The guys working on the garage got a kick out of that. Humiliating? Yes. Now I have to re-do all my laundry. This, of course, sparked another thought. They're working on the garage.. do I need to move my car? The answer, of course, was yes so I had to move my car about seven blocks away and figure out this buildings parking garage which is super confusing. Walked back home and got hit with a bunch of mud falling out of trees.

This, in turn, attracted more aphids of the aphid plague down here and I got back to the house with a large amount of the stupid little flies on me and had to wipe them all off. Gross. What else now? Are the washer and dryer going to break down? The refrigerator already did.

Did I mention I'm pulling an all-nighter tonight?

: )

Labor Day Weekend

Coming home this weekend was nice... except for the fact that I was sick for most of it. Not like a cold, flu nasty sort of sick, but an infection so I was just tired the whole time. I slept for most of Friday after I got home and Saturday.

Saturday, though, I went to my Aunt's house with my parents despite swearing to myself that I was going to do everything I could to avoid going. See, I don't get along with my Dad's sister that well. Well, no, we get along, but I'm not a huge fan of her. Still, I somehow ended up going and it went a lot better than I thought it would. First off, cousin Danny's baby is precious. I wonder if I should still be calling him Danny even though he's married and has a baby... Old habits die hard. Anyway, he was the chubbiest, cutest little thing and he was quite the flirt. Adorable. And he's named after Grandpa. The food they served was mostly old recipes of my Grandma's. It was funny, because although I don't remember them, they smelled and tasted like she would have cooked them.

I saw my other Aunt too. Its sad, seeing her the way she is but I was glad to see her nonetheless. She's funny. She has her moments where you'd swear that there was not much wrong with her mentally. My cousin said a smart ass thing and without missing a beat she told him to shut up like she probably would have a long time ago. She even remembered to ask me how school was, which was pretty impressive.

Anyway, after that was another party on Sunday. A surprise party for my friend's mom's 50th birthday. The whole time she was bitching about how she wasn't technically '50' yet and that nobody was allowed to tell her that she was. It was hilarious. I was only there for an hour or two, because one by one the friends that I had that were there decided that they didn't feel like being there anymore. I say 'friends', but I'm talking about one person pretty much. Another girl and I stayed until almost ten and then left.

The next day we had all agreed to go to the parade since we always go to all the parades. We have for the past few years. I had volunteered to drive everyone, so I got up around 8 in the morning to get ready to pick them all up between 9 and 9.15. I get a text while I'm in the shower that one of them "doesn't feel good" and is no longer going to go. Yeah, I believe that one. Not. She has a great history of lying when she doesn't feel like doing something so I'm pretty sure she was full of shit. How nice that I came home to see her and she didn't feel like seeing me. Anyway, the other one texted me a little bit later that she couldn't go either because she had to run 16 miles. She's training for the Chicago marathon. I know that, but couldn't she have told me that last night? So I finally texted the third one to see if she still wanted to go and no response. So, no parade and I got up super early for no reason when I was still kind of under the weather just to see them.

Kind of a downer.

But it wasn't a total loss of a weekend. I got stir fry and I got to spend time with my puppy and I'm pretty sure I almost have my mother convinced that we should get another boxer around Thanksgiving/Christmas. Two is better than one. We've heard it from so many people. If you have two of them, they're less likely to misbehave and they won't be so crazy when people come over. Makes perfect sense and since Jack is out of his mind he could use another dog to balance him out.

Fingers crossed!!

Semester Beginning Jitters

Well, its fall and thus a new semester has started.
I'm only in the second week and am already losing my mind.

Living in the house with everyone is fun, I'm enjoying it, but I still miss my apartment where it was quieter and all that jazz. This will be a neat experience for one year though and next year I'll have an apartment again. With roommates or not I'm not sure yet. I might get a one bedroom.. A friend of mine is living by herself and lived by herself all summer and said she really loved it so I'm considering it an option.

Sadly, we here at the U of I do have to think of these things this freaking early. People are already signing leases for the next school year in October so I need to start looking in September, I think. Wow!

Anyway, on to classes:

Italian won't be too bad. There's no attendance policy which I love! And its only three days a week as opposed to four like my previous Italian classes because this is only a grammar review. The professor is nice and she speaks so much slower than my previous professors so its so much easier to understand her.

Abnormal Psychology is very, very interesting. I really like it. Its a class all about mental disorders and things like that. I've only had a few classes so far but I really, really like it! If GD doesn't work out maybe I'll go into clinical psych...

Meteorology is fine. I've taken a class like it before and its just a 100 level so its not bad. Interesting and a nice, easy way to get my last math credit out of the way.

Typography... this class is going to KICK MY ASS. Seriously. There is so much work and the professor is quite picky and has extremely high standards. It doesn't help that the people around me are all trying to be super gung ho about design and make me feel kind of like an idiot who doesn't get it. I'm going to give it a shot though this semester and do my best. I'm already super stressed in this class. Hopefully it will get better.

Image Making is going to be a ton of work too, but I like the professor a lot better and it makes all the difference in the world. There are some projects I'm kind of interested in for this class and he's a lot more lenient about them and more laid back about due dates and such because he understands that this other class is such a chore for all of us.

So anyway. I have to create a font this semester for the Typography class. He assigned us each a topic out of ten personal inspirations we came up with for ourselves. Mine was 'friends' and he simply told me to 'pick a person' and go with it. Well, I'm not picking a person. Instead, I am going to be making my font based on imaginary friends, so take that professor! :)

In my research about imaginary friends today I came across a fun website that I'd like to share with you all: I Used to Believe is a really fun website were people post things that they used to believe as a child from stories about imaginary friends to lies their siblings told them. I submitted a few myself like the one where my dad lied to me and told me that he had a pet dinosaur as a kid and I went off and told my entire kindergarten class about it. Of course, another favorite went in there too where I used to believe that if I yelled 'change light!' at a red light it would immediately change to green because I said so. Its cute.

Also, go check out the blog Forgotten Bookmarks. I find it totally fascinating. I check it every day now.

Go check it out!

Mexico!

Well, after a week of vacation I feel pretty good. It was nice to get away. My mom and I took a week trip to Riviera Maya in Mexico and spent the entire week laying by a pool and drinking. It was fabulous. We didn't take any of those excursions to see anything or do anything, just woke up early, had breakfast and laid out and swam pretty much every day. Went out to the beach a few times and got in the ocean. It was beautiful. The resort was huge which meant a lot of walking, but hey walking isn't really a bad thing so we got used to it pretty quickly. It rained 3 of the days but we got a little bit of sun in each day so it wasn't a total loss. The money that we didn't spend on excursions went to massages, my favorite!

Seeing my mom take shots was probably the best part. It was hysterical. She took 2 Kamikaze shots (vodka, triple sec, lemon juice) that were pretty weak and loved them, but then the bartender made our third shots and they were stronger and the look on her face was priceless after she took it. I also got her hooked on amaretto sours, my favorite drink. The day after we got home she went to the liquor store and bought amaretto and sour mix so she could make them at home. I've created a monster!

Not much else going on. Back to work, which is a good thing. I need money desperately for school books and saving up for my possible Italian study abroad. Its annoying though, because my boss keeps scheduling me for shifts in departments that I'm not trained for so there have been some shifts I couldn't do which makes me lose money. I keep writing him notes telling him to not do it, but he still does. It drives me crazy. I'm only working 3 days for the next two weeks which sucks. I was hoping for like 3 or 4 days a week and I'm getting 1 or 2 and one of those three i'm scheduled for is a shift in photo which I can't do, ugh. Hopefully people will call off and I can go in and get me some money.

Summertime

Summer is the best time of year, provided that is warm enough for summertime activities which as of today it is not. Its kind of sad.

I've been out for a few weeks now and its been wonderful. Just laying around and being lazy has been great. I've laid out in by back yard a couple of times, hung out with friends, did a cancer walk yesterday and I've started working again.

Walgreens is the same as how I left it. Easy job. Easy money. Got a raise and I'm pretty content. I have to save up for study abroad, after all. June is going to be a good month once it warms up :)

I turn 20 in a little over a week and then after that it will be time for Mexico which I can't wait for. A week of laying on the beach, drinking beer and margaritas!

Off to work now to read magazines and get paid for it.

Exhaustion.

This has been the most hectic weekend ever!
I swear to god, I've never had so much to do in such a short period of time. I didn't even procrastinate this time! I started my projects early, stayed up late working, and they still aren't done!

Mom came down on Saturday and took me out to lunch and shopping because I was tired, burnt out, and pretty much ready to have a breakdown. That was nice. I got a couple of cute (and cheap!) sundresses at Aeropostale and a cute vest from Forever 21.. Went to hobby lobby and got some stuff to finish my projects and then she took home some of my stuff, which is nice. Hopefully now packing up for the end of the year won't be too bad. I highly doubt my apartment is going to be subleased so I can leave a bunch of stuff here too and just move it two blocks over to the house in August :P

I'm in my global lit class right now and I'm trying to pay attention but I can't. I have too many other things on my mind and am secretly on facebook, blogger, and editing rhetoric papers instead. This is like.. the ultimate test in multitasking because I really have a lot to do tonight. I won't be sleeping. I have to finish my embroidery and mount it in its frame and mount all of my information and make sure that its all in order for my picky teacher. Ugh. My drawing final is due at 4 and its done, but it sucks like nothing else. Its awful haha but I was destined to do poorly in that class anyway, so who cares, right?

The MS walk went well yesterday, the weather was beautiful. It was about a 2 mile walk through a forest preserve, which was neat. I enjoyed it. It was only about an hour which was nice because I had a ton of work to do, so I wanted to be home early enough to do it.

Updated To-Do List (for my own reference):

- Finish non-traditional drawing
- Finish FINAL drawing project
- Finish FINAL design project
- Edit rhetoric papers
- Put edited rhetoric papers together for portfolio
- Finish lecture notes to turn in for Global Lit & catch up on reading (1 of 3 done)
- Call Walgreens so that I can make sure I have a job.
- Clean my room. Its gross.
- Prepare for Italian Oral Exam
- Study for Italian Exam
- Study for Global Lit Exam

Once tomorrow is over my life will be so much easier. Seriously. Tonight it is going to be me, on the couch, in my sweats, with an energy drink, tea, caffeine pills, and piles of work. I'm not going to sleep and I'm going to get it all done darn it!

Oh and my Italian teacher picked on me during my oral exam. She asked me all the questions instead of my partner and then told me I had issues with grammar. Uh, yeah. Of course I do. Anyone would if they were put on the spot and were working on two hours of sleep. Luckily, I knew more facts than my partner, but she had better grammar so I guess together we were two halves of a decent oral exam haha.

I Need Lists

I always forget things, even really important things that I need to do unless I write them down obsessively and post them up right where I can see them. So, with 6 class days left, here is a list of things that I need to get done:

- Finish non-traditional drawing
- Finish FINAL drawing project
- Finish FINAL design project
- Edit rhetoric papers
- Put edited rhetoric papers together for portfolio
- Finish lecture notes to turn in for Global Lit & catch up on reading
- Call Walgreens so that I can make sure I have a job.
- Clean my room. Its gross.
- Prepare for Italian Oral Exam
- Study for Italian Exam
- Study for Global Lit Exam

This is a little bit unpleasant.. borderline scary ):

Even when I don't intend to skip class...

That's right. I intended to go to every single one of my classes this week. Of course that couldn't happen because today and yesterday I woke up with awful migranes. It figures. I try to be studious and serious and it just doesn't happen. Oh well. Eight more days of class, two finals and I'm done. Now if only I could register for my art classes that'd be great. They haven't put in my change of major into graphic design so I can't sign up for my design classes until then. So for now I'm only in Italian 210 and Atmospheric Science 100. I'm really only taking the weather class as a blowoff/math credit. I figure if its a gened it should be easy. If I wasn't an art major i'd probably major in atmospheric science/meteorology so its not like I'm not interested in it.

Not much happening in the life of me otherwise. The MS walk is coming up fast and I need to pimp myself out for donations. Aunt Linda is in the hospital right now, I think because she got pneumonia but I guess she was pretty alert and was asking about people which is good. I guess she's gotten more confused over the past couple of years, but has her moments when she remembers a lot of stuff. Apparently they're moving her into an assisted living place once she's out of the hospital which will be good for everyone I think. I also attempted to friend request my cousin Steve on facebook and he ignored me. Whaaaat a douche. I'm half tempted to tell him off but another part of me is telling me to leave it. Whatever. Drama drama drama.

In other news I'm doing embroidery for my latest drawing project. Weird right? But I'm way better at embroidery than drawing so I'm glad for the break from charcoal. My teacher gave me the strangest look when I walked in with all the floss and thread but he thinks its a pretty neat project idea so he's letting me do my thing.

One last story for today. So, some asshole keeps setting off the fire alarm in my apartment building and the other night it went off twice, once at 1.30am and once at 3am. Well, at 3am when it went off my roommate and I saw this kid stumble out of an apartment and walk straight into a pole. He wasn't even leaving the building because of the alarm. It turns out that the pizza guy had come with his food. Anyway, this guy was completely blitzed and probably high off his ass too [it was 4/20]. So my roommate and I head down the stairs to get out of the building when we notice this trail of blood on the ground. We just look at each other and go "Ohhh god..." and we find this kid talking to a really freaked out pizza guy. The pizza guy is telling him not to worry about the pizza but to go get his face looked at since he had a huge gash above his eye that was bleeding profusely all the way down his face and onto the floor all around him. Finally, my roommate takes him and his pizza and delivers him to his roommates and yeah. Great time. Somehow I feel worse for the pizza guy, though.

On Slacking

With only 3 weeks left in the semester, I have to say I'm a bit worried. I mean, there's not a lot of time left and I've chosen a great time to slack off and by slack off I mean just straight up not go to class. I'm going to do my best for the next three weeks and hopefully pull off some sort of small miracle! It may mean that I won't get much sleep but, really, I'll get tons of sleep once summer gets here so I need to pull through these next couple of weeks!

Mom's weekend is this weekend, so my mom will be coming down to stay for the weekend.. in my apartment haha. That will be interesting, but we'll have fun. I'm anticipating a nice amount of shopping! There's a craft show and this adorable little house that's an antique shop that we've wanted to go to for years and are finally going to go to now. I'm also organizing a brunch at the frat, which will be nice. Its going to be a big turnout, so I hope we have enough food! We should, some people have volunteered to help out and we've gotten our budget increased a bit, which is awesome! The weather this weekend is supposed to be nice too, which I can't wait for. Near 70 degrees! With such a horrible winter, this is something to cheer about! I love not having to wear a coat and I love that its raining instead of snowing.

Tomorrow I have a lot to do. I made graphic design so tomorrow I'm going to go declare my major and possibly also declare my Italian minor! Registration for classes is on Friday and once that's over I'll be relieved. In more good news, Jason Mraz is coming to U of I and hopefully that means I'm going to see him. I loooooooooove him. Love. Hopefully I can get everything accomplished this week that I need to. Someone needs to light the proverbial fire under my ass.

Spring Break Recap

Spring back is officially over.

What did I do? Pretty much nothing. I would have loved to have gone somewhere, but just laying around at home and relaxing (and shopping) was really therapeutic too.

I'm kind of glad that I'm not going home again for awhile, because the new dog is driving me craaaaaazy. He's adorable and I love him, but I hate that he's teething and his favorite thing to chew on is my arm. His little teeth are sharp and he's super stubborn and won't take chew toys when I try to give them to him instead. So, ow. Luckily, when I'm off for summer break he should be about done with that phase and starting his training, which will be wonderful.

Lots of stuff coming up, but its going to be kind of fun stuff. I have things due tomorrow and Tuesday that I am already done with and then a test on Wednesday, but Wednesday night is a bar crawl for us foundation students who are finally done with our portfolios and Saturday night is our Formal at APX. Its a 1920s themed murder mystery party and I have this adorable purple dress that I'm jazzing up with some 20s accessories. I love it. I've got a bottle of champagne and I'm getting orange juice and dammit I'm making mimosas! I don't care if they're not a "night time" drink, they're delicious.

I'm also going to do my best to work out this week. I need it and I got some new gym shoes, so whats stopping me? I've been eating too much crap at school and need to get into shape for summer. No, I don't think I'm fat, but I'm out of shape and need to tone up a bit and with such a nice workout center so close to my apartment I have no excuse not to go.

I've been watching planet earth for three hours now and I really need to go to bed. Its absurd.

On Being Productive...

Its a miracle! I'm actually being productive today! Last night I did absolutely nothing aside from going out to $1 sushi night with some girls in my frat, which is part of the reason I skipped classes today. I was overwhelmed and stressed out and so I slept in today, which is stupid because its only two more days until Spring Break. Still, what are you gonna do? It happens sometimes. I'm going to the rest of my classes this week, no doubt and right now I'm at the union doing my homework because I can't focus at my apartment. Too many distractions. I need to do this more often, its so much nicer.

Here's a good story, I got my first parking ticket ever last night. I drove myself and the girls to KoFusion, the sushi restaurant, and parked in a lot with meters. Now, on campus, meters are free after 6 so I figured it would be the same in downtown Champaign since its the same city. Uh, no. Not free until after 9 downtown, oops! So I got a $10 ticket, which isn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be. I'm mailing in the check right after I'm done with my homework and once its paid its off my record, so no biggie. I've only had my car down here two days and I've already gotten a parking ticket and some asshole threatening to have my car towed from my apartment building so he could park illegally, haha. What a tool. Oh well, still worth it.

I'm taking a quick break right now from writing my paper on what a nutball Oprah is, haha. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy watching her show, but I think she's gone off the deep end a bit. On a more positive note, I want to take this opportunity to express my love for Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons. I don't think I've heard a son of theirs that I don't like. I love Frankie and I looooooove the music. Jersey Boys was the best musical I've ever seen and I'm dying to see it again! It was a great birthday present and now I have a small obsession with them, haha.

In better news, two days until break! Yes!! I can't wait to go home for a week and have fun. I'm excited to see my puppy again :) We ended up naming him Jack and I'm still trying to get used to it. It wasn't my first choice, but I like it enough and mom likes it so Jack it was. I like to think we named him after Jack Daniels. Classy. Apparantly, I'm also being rewarded somehow for going to that baby shower with my mother last friday, which is aaaawesome. It was for my cousin Danny's wife, whom I've met once and I hadn't seen Dan or Beth or Aunt Laura for two years prior. Apparantly my cousin Steve has a facebook too and refuses to friend Beth, haha. I'm trying to decide if I care enough to try my luck. He'd probably say no, I haven't seen him in at least 10 years after all, haha. Good God. Drama, drama, drama. Oh well, at least I managed not to say mean things at the baby shower, +10 points for me in the self control area. Beth I have no problem with, she's always been nice to me, Dan too, but Aunt Laura is a bit of a bitch. Pshhh.

Back to my paper and then maybe a trip to jamba juice or the basement of the union to get food. I need to continue with this good streak of being productive. One more plug before I leave. Yesterday I joined the National Bone Marrow Donor registry with my frat and I'd encourage others to join! Just go to www.marrow.org to learn about it. Its just a cheek swab, no big deal, though I did almost pass out while watching one of my friends give blood. It was embarrassing! No big deal for him, he laughed when the lady put the needle in him and I almost lost my mind and nearly fainted. Pathetic. I can't give blood anyway, though, don't weigh enough, so he said he was donating for me, haha. OH. One more thing I'm doing. MS Walk! I'm super excited for it, its going to be fun :) I love walks. Relay for Life in June again, yeah! But May 3rd I'm walking for Multiple Sclerosis, which my Aunt Linda has. I'm walking in Urbana with people in my frat and I need donations, so tell your friends! You can donate online and any little bit helps!

Here is my Personal Page, where you can make the donation! Its an awesome cause, so I'll be whoring myself out for donations the entire month of April and beyond haha.

Crazy Week

This week has been absolutely absurd. Like, no joke one of the busiest weeks I've had all school year. A paper, a 15 minute speech in a foreign language (which went horribly haha), a presentation, a guest lecture to attend (haha yeah right), a drawing to finish and another one to start and an animation to finish and a storyboard for my next video project to start. Also tonight I'm supposed to go over to the house to watch the new pledges but I think I might skip that because I really need to finish cleaning my apartment and do some laundry before I go home tomorrow. I seriously have no clothes to wear right now.

My roommate is sick again too, poor thing. I think she might have the flu, like a mild stomach flu because she's been puking and has a fever and apparently hurts all over. She just got done being sick too so I feel bad. I"ll probably run to Walgreen's later to get her some more Sprite and saltines, unless the neighbors go for her while I'm in class.

This week has been so hectic that my Italian professor pulled me aside to make sure I was ok, haha. She said that the writing I had turned into her was excellent but that I seemed really stressed out, which I am. I told her that things would get better after spring break and to just bear with me for now. I need to photograph my drawings and put together my portfolio. I put in my application to the program admittance thing on Monday. Graphic Design as my first choice, Photography as my second, New Media (film) as my third, Art Education as my fourth, and Industrial Design as my fifth choice. I'm bound to get into one of them!

As stressful as this week is, tomorrow I get to go home and meet my puppy :) He still doesn't have a name, but among the top choices are Roscoe, Champ, Riley, and Murphy. I personally like Murphy or Champ. We'll have to see. I guess its supposed to be my job to name him, so hopefully I'll come up with something good. Then Sunday I have to come back here and I will have my car down at school for the week which will be awesome, and then after that its Spring Break, which is the most exciting thing since Christmas. Well, no, wearing flip flops last week was better than Christmas, so I guess Spring Break is more exciting than that.

Unofficial Weekend

Ughh, what a stupid weekend. Friday itself was nice, at least during the day but once it got later and people started arriving, it just went downhill. I'm glad that my friends got to come and visit but I wish I'd had more warning and that the person that had invited them had had more of a part in taking care of them and showing them a good time. They felt guilty but I was glad that they were there, it wasn't their fault, just the girl that invited them who also invited herself and 13 people to my place last night and made a mess and drank my roommate's alcohol.

So now, despite being somewhat hungover, I'm cleaning up and trying to get my work done. I'm going to pay my roommate back for what they drank/stole and yeah. I'm pissed about that. Ugh.

Also, I guess my parents bought a dog today. Or rather, my dad bought a dog. Sure, its exciting but I do wish they had waited until I was home. They asked me and I know that dad really wanted a boxer so I told them it was fine. I'm going home this weekend to see him and I'm sure once I actually get to hold him and play with him it'll be more exciting and I'm sure I'll like him, I just don't know. Its just weird to have learned about it over the phone. Furthermore mom doesn't know if she wants or even likes bigger dogs and I don't want to hear about it for the next 8 - 10 years. I don't know... We'll see on Thursday I guess.

Also, apparantly Grandma is not happy about this dog business. I mean, she's my Grandma and of course I love her and I feel bad to say this, but its really none of her business. She doesn't live with us but mom told her and all she said was "Well, you aren't going to be happy". Like, wow Grandma, vicious. I guess the older you get the less you censor yourself. Sigh.

My Addictions + Other Stuff

This week is going to be a busy week for me. I have a paper to start, an animation to finish, a portrait to finish, my apartment to clean for guests this weekend. I need to start my Italian speech and meet my group members for my Rhetoric presentation. Its odd, because I don't feel all overwhelmed when I really should. When I get to listing everything I need to do this week I'm not that afraid. Of course, this probably has something to do with the arrival of unofficial this Friday where I will be drunk all day and forgetting about all of these things.

I'm starting to find that I have a couple of addictions. Luckily, they are not to drugs or other such things. No, my addictions are actually quite tame and borderline boring. I am addicted to kettle chips and crossword puzzles. Honestly. Give me a bag of kettle chips and a book of crosswords and I could happily entertain myself for hours. This, of course, does not help me in class when I should be paying attention and am instead agonizing over a four letter word for something obscure. Oh well.

Not much else going on in my life. Nothing new on the puppy front. I thought I had my dad this weekend. I was so close! I saw the cutest Bernese Mountain Dog puppy and fell in love instantly but no. Dad is pretty set on wanting a boxer but I think I can actually convince him into getting a Bernese. They are, without a doubt, the cutest puppies on earth. Seriously, google them, you won't be disappointed. I'm in love with the breed and if we don't get one, that will be the first thing I get when I start living on my own after college. I do, however, have a new pet! I bought myself a goldfish the other day when I came back to school from a weekend home. I named him Stanley and his little bowl is on our glass coffee table. He seems to enjoy watching TV and trying to eat his fake pink plant. Its not a puppy, but its something to feed :)

I have a lot of fun things coming up too, which can distract me from my work! Next week I'm going to karaoke night, the week after its Spring break. After that, the first weekend of April is our Formal for the frat. We'll be having a murder mystery party, awesome! I'm doing a bone marrow drive sometime in April too, and in May I'll be doing an MS walk! One of my Aunts has MS, so its really important to me to walk in this with my frat. Of course, it'll be a pain but I'm going to try to get donations and organize fundraisers down here. I'll probably post a link up to my page on the MS Walk website so people can donate to me online. I'm not sure how long the walk is, but it will be fun. In June, it will be time for Relay for Life again, which I am SUPER excited for. I love relay. I've done it for the past two years and look forward to doing it again this year! So although I have to work, at least I have some things to look forward to.

Oh, and a quick shout out: To the guys upstairs who threw their George Foreman grease all over our door, SCREW YOU. Its disgusting.

Daily Photo Blogs

So, its 1am and what am I doing? Writing a paper about blogging that's due tomorrow. I figure writing in my own blog will give me some sort of inspiration (which is just a roundabout way of procrastinating). I chose to write about daily photo blogs because I really find them interesting and fun to read. A picture is worth a thousand words, you know? Its one thing to read about something but to be able to see it lends so much more to the blog.

I wish I had the ability to commit to a daily photo blog. I'm just too much of a procrastinator for something like that. I mean, look at this paper! It was assigned like two weeks ago and its 1am and its due tomorrow and I just started.

:)

All I can do is brew some hot tea, turn up the Britney Spears and keep on working. That, and turn off the TV because I've watched the same episode of Top Chef three times in a row now and its borderline ridiculous. That show is like crack. Gourmet crack.

Also, a little side note. I want to quickly express my love for the movie Slumdog Millionaire. It was hands down one of the best movies I've seen in quite a while! If it doesn't win for Best Picture (and for that matter, any and everything else it is nominated for), I will be very upset! Phenomenal movie, absolutely awesome. If you haven't seen it yet, go!! GO NOW!

Busy Busy

I thought second semester was going to be easier than first semester, but I'm quickly finding out that last semester has nothing on this semester, wow! My classes aren't that difficult, but they are a loooot of work. Drawing especially. Its frustrating enough that I don't like drawing and am not good at it, but its always the class I have the most work for, ugh! Why can't it leave me alone? In other news, I'm attempting to put together my portfolio for my march portfolio review to see if I can get into graphic design. I'm panicking about that, of course, because there are roughly 35 spots in graphic and most of my 175+ person class is aiming for those spots. I'm not that good at anything that isn't graphic design so I'm worried that I'm not going to get in.

I've been thinking about it and I would be happy with photography too, but all that worrying has lead me to wonder if I'm even meant to be an artist. Maybe I should switch my major before I get in too deep. Of course, if I switched, what should I switch too? I'm not really that interested in anything else. Its all a little bit much. I'm just going to apply to my programs and see what happens and then go from there. That's all I can really do, though I'm still going to freak out in the process. Its only mid February and I already need spring break really badly.

Good news, though, is that I think I've finally figured out my plans for study abroad. I think I'll be going next summer, 2010, to Verona, Italy and taking Italian, Art History, and Photography there. It would be from the end of May to the beginning of July (meaning I'd turn 21 in Italy, which is funny because I'd already legally be able to drink there and it would be my second milestone birthday in a foreign country. 16 in London, 21 in Verona). Verona seems like a really neat place. Its not a big touristy city since its close to Venice which is where all the tourists go, but it was the setting of Romeo and Juliet so its a really romantic place and you can go and see "Juliet's balcony"... So thats the plan for that unless I find an Italy program I like better. I'll be spending this summer saving up money for that.

Some stuff to look forward to this week though.. there's our Valentines day dance on Friday (a week late because last week we were welcoming our new pledges!). Saturday my cousin is coming down for the night and we'll have a good time partying. Hopefully I won't have too much work to do this weekend so that I can enjoy it all and not freak out! I need sleep... I was up until 6am finishing a drawing and tonight I'm hoping to get a lot more sleep.

Hello 4 AM

Why, oh why am I awake right now?

I'm sickkk again, stupid cesspool of a university. Honestly, I'm like constantly sick down here and I need to be well to go ice skating again on Wednesday! Its my roommates 21st birthday and another friend's 20th birthday, tonight is supposed to be a celebration and I want to go out and do so thoroughly! Come onnn! I've taken sooo much medicine to make myself feel better, its borderline disgusting.

Oh.
Thats why I'm awake.
The medicine makes me hyper. And I have to get up in 3 hours, noooo! :(
Of course, I'm not motivated to sleep because I can hear the wind howling outside my window and it does not sound friendly. I do not want to go out and meet it when I have to go to class.

But I'm just bitching to pass the time. I'm fine, I'm going home this weekend so I will be a-ok! That and I only have class Monday through Thursday so really, its not that long of a week.

A day of rest.. kind of.

So, what have I been up to lately? Oh, lots of things surprisingly. Spring recruitment has begun so I've been toasting marshmallows in a dirty fireplace, ice skating, and bowling all over the place. Its a nice change of pace, actually going out and doing activities, but I'm tired, so I've stayed in the past few nights whilst my friends party it up, but hey, I partied a bit too hard last week so I need a bit of a break. Can't be having that much fun all the time. Its not good for the liver or for the wallet.

Anyway, classes have started and I can tell I'm going to be busy. The classes themselves aren't bad, save for drawing because I absolutely abhor drawing, but I do like my professor. He's a monotonous self-proclaimed asshole (no, seriously, it was the first thing he said to us), but in that sarcastic way that I can relate to, so I like him and I'm doing some extra credit so that I can keep my grade up since my actual drawing skills suck a whole lot. In my design class right now, I'm doing 3D again, which is pretty lame, but I have the same professor as last semester and he knows I hate it and that its not my thing. We're on the same wavelength, so I enjoy his class well enough and its only 5 weeks long and then the class starts a new section, so yay. Then theres Italian 4 which is way more difficult than Italian 3, but with the same professor and a few friends from my old seven person class, so its not bad. That, and its at 11am now instead of 9am so no more falling asleep. I'm in a writing class too, which is weird, but my teacher is a grad student and she's pretty nice so I think it'll be ok. Its just 4 papers and 1 presentation so no big deal there. Lastly, a global literature classs which is actually really interesting. We looked at a bunch of historical maps and talked about how they relfected the world views of their creators and stuff and I think I'm going to like the class so yay!

Last week was relatively party crazy. I went out quite a bit and so now I'm taking it easy. Its hard to say no when you have nothing else to do and 50 frat brothers to bond with who have booze haha. So I had my fun and did my bonding and it was good. I went ice skating for the first time in a couple of years too and I'm surprised by how much I missed it! I'm having my dad get my skates sharpened at home so I can bring them back with me in case we go again and I hope we do!! I'm not as good as I used to be but I didn't fall and it was a ton of fun, definitely one of my favorite things to do. Bowling.. as usual I have no skill whatsoever. Its just throw the thing and hope it hits something which it usually doesn't haha, but it was still fun. I thought about going out tonight but decided on getting some jamba juice and laying around in my apartment and so far I'm content with that.

Today I was going to try to clean my entire apartment... obviously that did not happen. At least I got my laundry done, though. I needed clean clothes desperately haha. With a washer/dryer unit in the apartment I have no excuse to not do it. More good news, I finally got a new cellphone. I've been wanting one for a long time and my razr started to crap out on me yesterday so my roommate drove me to the verizon store and I got an enV2 which I loooove and then spent like two hours at the mall, which was also fun. I wish I had my own car, but its nice that she was willing to take me! Thats about it for now. I'm super tired and need to find a good ringtone for my phone!

Hello, world.

Its me! I'm back at school!
Winter break was all I wanted it to be and more :)

I had fun lazing around and sleeping and doing nothing, going shopping, hanging out with my friends in the 'ville. Took a road trip to Peoria to hang out with pledge brothers. Speaking of, I am no longer a pledge, yay! I had my initiation from Wednesday to Saturday last week. It was brutal and long, but it was worth it and I'm so glad I'm a brother now! Yes, brother. Not sister, haha. In every oath I took, I was a man.

So anyway, even though I'm back down in Chambana, I am not ready for school to start yet. I'd be perfectly happy to laze around in my apartment and whatnot, but I don't like this whole school thing. I'm already annoyed with design. I think that its just the fact that I dislike using power tools. I also forgot all of my drawing supplies at home, but luckily, I forgot a few other things and mama is coming down on Saturday to take me to lunch and give me my stuff. I only have drawing on Wednesday this week, so I should be fine for a day without my stuff. Theres bound to be one or two people in my class that I know that I can borrow from anyway.

The one thing I hate the most about being back is unpacking. The second thing I hate is all the salt outside of my apartment. My floors are filthy and I can't walk on them without shoes, which means I have to clean the floor but I really don't want to. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Going to an inauguration party tonight, haha. Should be fun. Having dinner at one of my friend's dorms before hand, which should also be nice. I love free dinners that I don't have to cook! Thats still a couple of hours away, though, so I guess I should clean the floor and then get ready to go! Yay Obama!