Warmer Days :)

Ok.  I don't want to be one of those cliché people who like to talk about the weather.  But...that's what I'm going to do.
Friends, it's the middle of March and it's 80 degrees and sunny!  Welcome to Iowa.  After spending spring break at a hockey rink, I definitely can't complain about this weather.  I just went on a walk wearing a t-shirt and shorts!  In all honesty, I don't miss winter one bit.
I think my fish are even excited about the sunshine.  They keep looking out the window and doing this fish-like dance move.  I think that means they want me to take them on a walk.  So if anyone has a spare fish leash or two, let me know.  


In other news, we are in the homestretch here!  I only have one quarter left of my freshman year of college.  Isn't that exciting?!  It's not that I don't love being here, because I really do.  But isn't it crazy how fast time flies?  It seems like just yesterday, I was graduating from preschool!  Alright, maybe not quite that far back.  But I have to admit, 8th grade doesn't seem like it was that long ago.  Yeah, time definitely is flying.  I don't know about you, but I'm going to make the most of the rest of this year.  Life is too short to be taken seriously, anyway.  :)


Shout-out to my best friend, who turned 19 on Saturday, and is quite possibly the coolest nerd I know.  ;)

Spring Cleaning

It's almost spring break here in Sioux City!  And while most of my friends are getting excited, I'm just getting frantic.  And not without reason!  Let's think this out logically.  I have to pack up and move out of my dorm room for the summer right after commencement on May 12th.  Before then, I'm only going home for spring break and Easter.  And, realistically, I have a lot more stuff in my room than I brought here in August.  There's no way I'm going to be able to fit it all in my parents' van in May.  So clearly, I have to start bringing things home now!  Too bad I just realized this...oh...today.  Can you say frantic?  I think so.

Thinking that I probably had a bunch of stuff to bring home sitting in my desk drawers, I decided to clean them out first.  I ended up almost finding more trash than real things that I could take home, but it was a fun adventure nonetheless.  What did I find in my drawers?  Let me tell you!

• A lot of stickers, given to me by my roommate on my birthday, which was almost three months ago.
• EVERYTHING that I was given during orientation week, including random coupons, Command strips...and my room assignment.  Why did I find it necessary to keep that?!  Isn't it obvious what room I live in?  Apparently brand-new-freshman-me thought I might forget where my room was and have to rifle through my desk drawer--in my room--to figure it out.
• A featherless feather duster thing that my mom thought I would need.  Sorry, Mom.  Apparently dorm rooms don't acquire dust.
• My class schedule from first semester.  In fact, I found two of those.  Note that I've already recycled my second semester schedule.
• Several empty notebooks that I thought I would easily fill up with all my rigorous college courses. Little did I know!

If I learned one thing from this endeavor, it's that I can pack light and get rid of most of the pointless paperwork I'm given at the beginning of the year.  Maybe if I do that, I won't have to panic and start tearing apart my room before spring break next year!  Good thing I've got three more shots at this.  ;)

In other news, two of my fishies, John and Paul, will be journeying home with me on our 6-hour road trip tomorrow!  Not only will this be their first time venturing out of Sioux City, but they'll be the very first pets to ever live with my family, even for just a week.  I'll probably keep them on my lap for a large portion of the ride.  Fingers crossed that they don't get carsick!

And now I'm off to pack up more of my room!  Have a great week, and I'll see you back in Sioux City after my lovely spring break in the 651.  

Wherever the Sun Shines

Bad days.  We all have them.  And, if you've got luck like mine, you've had a series of one bad day after another.  These days don't last forever, but they're definitely not enjoyable.  For example, let me share with you a few of the unfortunate things that made my week not so lovely.

• I had to take three history quizzes in four days.
• The Internet has been failing at random and extremely inconvenient times.
• The snow has returned.  Not only are the streets and sidewalks disgusting, but the sun is not shining.
• Wednesday was National Let's-All-Be-Abnormally-Mean Day.  But no one informed me in advance.
• My split ends are nasty.  I really need a haircut.

I hate to admit it, but those events, on top of a couple others that really aren't even worthy of this blog, had been putting me in a pretty bad mood.  So I thought to myself, "Self, how can you blog about your spectacular life when you're not even feeling remotely spectacular?"  And then it hit me like one of those "could've had a V8" moments.  All these little things don't even compare to the awesome things that I have to look forward to!  So I started thinking of all those things.  Now, it's not that I don't love living in Sioux City.  I really do.  But it's pretty gloomy here right now, so I've got some shinier places on my mind.  For instance...

• The Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw Concert on July 8th in the Twin Cities.
• Merida, Mexico, where I'm going for a whole semester my junior year.
• St. Louis, where some of my favorite cousins live!
• London.  I have no plans to go there any time in the near future, but it seems like an absolutely fabulous place!  Maybe someday.
• My friend's pool, which I will (hopefully) spend quite a bit of time at over the summer.  We'll get tan, and our friend from China will do everything in her power to stay as pale as possible.
• Any place where the sun is shining.  :)

It's true: bad days really don't last forever.  So let's get our thoughts somewhere brighter, somewhere warmer, somewhere happier.  Wherever the sun shines.

Oh!  And here's the song that inspired this post and my positive thinking.  Kenny fans, enjoy.  :)

Ciao, Football!

Is it just me, or is football season over?  Oh wait...yes it is!  Now, I'm not a hater.  I respect everyone's interests, and I don't mind if you enjoy watching football.  Feel free to spend your time however you like.  But the sport has never really appealed to me.  Not only am I not at all interested in playing it, but I don't even understand it.  So, as you can imagine, I'm very excited that the rest of the country has moved on past football season and can start focusing on, well, pretty much anything else.
But if you're like some people I know, you may have issues trying to come up with topics of conversation that don't involve football.  Have no fear, though!  I've come up with a brilliant bullet-pointed list for you.  You're welcome.  :)

Things to Talk About that Don't Involve Football

• Baseball.  Preferably the Minnesota Twins.
• The Queen of England.
• The life and times of your goldfish: John, Paul and George.
• How awesome it is that Betty White is still alive and kickin' (and sassy as ever) at age 90.
• Corn.
• The difference between crocodiles and alligators.
• Washed up child stars.
• Italian government.
• Halloween costumes for dogs.
• How unfortunate it is that people who were born on February 29th only get to celebrate their birthday once every four years.
• More corn.

You can really add anything you want to this list, just as long as it doesn't involve football in any way, shape or form.

And that's all I've got for today.  Have a spectacular week, and stay shiny.  :)

Every Semester has its Soundtrack.

Happy Valentine's Day, readers!  I'm not one of those people who's totally into all the mushy-gushy stuff this day has to offer.  But I'm also not one of those people who posts depressing statuses about how terrible it is being single today, either.  To me, I guess, today is just...Tuesday.
That being said, I'd like to do something now that I've been wanting to do for a long time.  In fact, I probably should've done this towards the end of first semester.  But hey, better late than never, right?
So as my Valentine's Day gift to everyone who faithfully reads my blog, I'd like to share with you the top five songs that will forever remind me of the first semester of my freshman year of college.  I should point out that all the songs you're about to see are songs that were constantly playing in the bathroom in my hall last semester.  So without further ado...

Top 5 Songs that will Always Remind Me of First Semester


5. Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5

I had heard this song before I came to Sioux City, but it never got stuck in my head every other day until I heard it every two hours in my dorm.  If you've never seen this video, don't expect it to be very "normal."  Consider yourself warned.

4. Good Life by OneRepublic

The first time I heard this song in my hall bathroom, I felt like I could really relate to it!  Basically, the lyrics talk about a guy who ends up in a foreign city he's never been to.  All his friends wonder where the heck he is while he's living the "good life"  in this spectacular city.  If only he were talking about Sioux City, not London, this could be my anthem.

3. Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People

I have to admit, I didn't realize what this song was about until, well, just a couple weeks ago.  When you figure it out, I wouldn't advise advocating the message to young children.  Or anyone, for that matter.  Nevertheless, I'm sure my neighbors heard me humming this tune on a regular basis.  

2. Hello by Martin Solveig and Dragonette

I had never heard of Martin Solveig or Dragonette before I heard this song.  In fact, I didn't know who sang this until I searched for it on YouTube to put in this post!  But it's definitely a catchy song, thus making it easy to get stuck in my head and forever remind me of semester one of college.

1. You and I by Lady Gaga

WARNING: This is a typical Lady Gaga video.  It's very strange.  That being said, I absolutely love this song.  I'm a big Gaga fan (there's a giant poster of her hanging above my desk), and I think the lyrics and story to this song are brilliant.  Feel free to disagree, just keep it to yourself, please.

Well, that's about it!  Perhaps I've inspired a new playlist for you...or not.  Either way, have a great day, my dear friends.  Spread the love.  :)

Meanwhile in the Cornfields...

Back by popular demand: the beloved bullet-pointed list!
Just kidding.  This was not demanded by anyone of the popular (or unpopular, for that matter) persuasion.  But there's no better way to recap my highly thrilling week, right?

Highlights, Lowlights and Mood Lighting of My Week

• On Monday evening, I went to to dinner at my Spanish professor's house with the seven other students in my class.  To my pleasant surprise, it was actually a lot of fun!  Because let's be honest: semi-formal dinners generally have major potential to be insanely boring.  (I would define this dinner as semi-formal because both of my forks [yes, there were, in fact, two forks] were placed to the left of my plate.  And I'm not even left-handed.)  But no!  This dinner was full of delicious food, class bonding and a lot of laughter.  The most exciting part of the evening, however, was when my friend put out the flames on a napkin that mysteriously caught on fire.  Later that night, her status said:

"Successfully averted the conflagration of my Spanish teacher's house."

 Yes, yes she did.

• I'd like to say that something crazy and exotic happened on Tuesday, but the most exciting thing was that I didn't have any classes!  Is that even worth a bullet point?  Probably not.  But oh well.
• On Wednesday, my band was given some pretty discouraging news.  Long story short, the school's administration has cancelled the search for a new director, leaving our band director-less for next year.   The entire music department is now up in arms and hoping to peacefully bring to the administration's attention just how badly this decision is going to affect us.
  But on a lighter note, Wednesday also brought a new position of leadership for me!  Sort of unexpectedly, I was "elected" to my school's honors council.  I went to my first meeting Wednesday night, and I enjoyed it quite a bit!  We're currently working on planning our trip to Kansas City next month.  So basically, you can be expecting a post about my exotic weekend in Missouri in about a month and a half!
• Since Valentine's Day is on Tuesday, this week has been my school's "Week of Love."  So on Thursday, we had a knock-off brand of Build-a-Bear come and grace us with its presence!  I built a pink monkey and named her Maya.  She's really the ugliest stuffed monkey I've ever seen, but I suppose it's what's on the inside that counts.

This is Maya the Monkey.  She's not the most attractive monkey out there.  But she's stuffed with love!

• Today I bought a caramel hot chocolate from the campus café.  Nothing more eventful than that has happened!  But I suppose the night is still young.

So there you have it!  It's been a good week.  No complaints.  Well, except for that whole up-in-arms-about-the-lack-of-musical-director situation.  But other than that, I'm a happy camper.

Frostbitten :)

When I went downstairs to toast a bagel before class this morning, I looked out the window, only to find every single treetop sparkling white.  It hadn't snowed.  (I figure we'll probably get a huge blizzard in May or something.  That's the price we'll pay for such warm weather in February.)  The trees were covered in frost!  It was really beautiful.  So what did I do?  I took pictures, just for you.

These are a few of the trees right outside my building.

Check that out!  You can see a whole bunch of shimmering trees in the background.

Now that we've all admired how pretty the trees are, let's take a look at a few things in this last picture, shall we?  First, have a look at the speed limit sign.  That's a whopping 25 miles per hour.  However, most people who drive down this street are going much faster than 25.  More like...45.  But hey, why not?

Now let's check out those apartments in the background.  I've been in there once, and they're nice!  I'd love to live there someday.  However, they probably cost quite a bit more than the little box of a room I'm living in now.  So I think we'll stick with the dorms for a while.  :)

Finally, notice the jungle gym right in the middle of this picture.  Nothing spectacular, but it's a decent playground.  In fact, I have a great view of it from my window!  Now, there are two types of people who hang out at this jungle gym: small children with their parents, and sketchy teenagers.  I prefer the small children, quite honestly.  

The frost on the trees is long gone by this time of day, but it was lovely while it lasted.  I'm hoping it'll stay this warm here in Sioux City so I won't have to break out my winter coat again.  The weatherman always seems to be predicting snow, but we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it.