A Day in the Life

Christmas Trees

To be honest, Thanksgiving itself doesn't excite me that much. I don't really like turkey, potatoes, gravy or stuffing.  Eh, not my fault. (I do however LOVE pumpkin pie, so some of the food is exciting.) But I really like Thanksgiving as a holiday because I like everything that I can associate with it...

I like going home to Seattle and having a nice, albeit way too short, little break.  I love being at home and getting to spend time with my family. I love baking and making food so that is really fun. I like being able to just take time off to relax (although I have read like 4 books for school this weekend so it's not really that relaxing).

Every year for Thanksgiving we go over to our friends house and have a big yummy dinner.  It is fun; there are four kids all around the same age and we grew up living down the street from each other. 

My Favorite part about thanksgiving is actually the day AFTER Thanksgiving -- we go to get our Christmas Trees with 5 other families! We wake up really early (it's actually around about 8) and bundle up in lots of warm clothing before getting in the car to drive to this big tree farm.  Then we tromp around through the mud in order to find the perfect tree.  After finding our tree (normally with lots of debate), we go out to a delicious brunch with the other families and catch up on what has been happening.My sister and me at the Christmas Tree place!

I hope that you all also had awesome Thanksgivings--in the meantime I have to go finish a paper, ahhh!

Some Things I've Learned

The three years that I've come to college I've learned a lot: a lot from my classes, a lot from and about others, a lot about myself and a lot about living on my own.  Here are some things that I have learned, especially about myself since coming to college.

1. I need a lot of sleep. I know, everyone tells you to sleep--but when there is so much going on all the time, it is hard to make it a priority. I have discovered that I have to make it a priority, or I am a mess: I get stressed out, I can't get as much done, I get sick easier, it's really just a vicious cycle. So, I try to go to bed early

. (My Bed)

2. I am much happier if I do something active (almost) every day.  Like sleep, it's really hard to find time to go running or to the gym (etc), when things get hectic.  But I find that I am a much happier person if I do make the time to go running or to go to the gym and go climbing, so I really make the effort to do it.

(Or Hiking counts too ;))

3. It's okay to say "No!".  I think I can do everything.  I want to do everything--so I think I'll be able to.  Help bake for that bakesale, definitely.  Come to your party on Friday night, Of Course! Help you write your paper? Yeah.  Lead a climbing trip next weekend? I'd love to!.  Okay, so that's my habit, I agree to everything, because I genuinely want to be involved,I want to help other people, and I am involved in the things that I am involved with because I LIKE them.  However, when I say yes to EVERYTHING, I end up not really being able to do ANYTHING well. And that is even worse.  Or I don't sleep, and that's my number one issue ;).  This year I have really begun to tell people No, Sorry, but I can't.  It's so liberating. Try It =).

4. Everyone has their addictions and mine is coffee (caffeine?).  All of freshman year I insisted that I wasn't  addicted to coffee, I just liked it, a lot. All the time.  Okay, that may be true--but before I start homework, I like to have a coffee. And before I go to class, I also like to have a coffee. Now I know that maybe this isn't the best dependency, but for now, I need my coffee--and if it makes my day better, well hey, i'm okay with that.

(Thoroughly enjoying my Starbucks)

5. Sometimes there are things more important than school.  Now, I am, admittedly, a huge nerd.  Not in a computery way, but in a, "I'd rather spend my night reading a book than going to your party" type of way.  And I really like the affirmation of getting good grades.  I hate writing a bad paper, and I hate turning something in that maybe isn't as good as it could be.  At the same time, when your best friend has a breakdown, or you're going to a rally in DC, or you need to fly home to be with your family--well it's okay to put school to the side.  And important to do so.

6. (on a similar note) It's OKAY to ask for an extension!  Crazy, I know. But most professors totally understand when you ask for an extension of a few days--especially if you do it before hand and explain the situation to them.  This semester I had to ask for an extension on my paper because I was leading a climbing trip and wouldn't get home til Sunday night.  I Could have written it, but I wouldn't have slept. I explained the situation and my professor was totally understanding.

(Climbing Trip > Writing Paper)

7.  How to skim a book in an hour and be able to talk about it in class ;).  Okay, so maybe not as personal to me but damn it's a good skill, and a really important one to have in college. Unfortunately the material won't stay with you (i haven't learned that one yet), so I often have to go back through the book to write a paper etc.... Oh Well...

8.  It's SUPER important to have good roommates.  Now, I have honestly been pretty lucky with all of my roommates. Even my freshman year roommate and I got along really well--in fact we are still really close.  But, it is super important to live with people you get along with well, who have similar cleaning habits to you, who have similar living priorities as you, who you can talk to, and who respect your wishes. It is really important to be able to go home at the end of a stressful day and have a nice environment.

(Since I have blogged about my current roommates already, I am including a picture of my roommates from Freshman & Sophomore year!! They are all awesome =) )

9. It gets COLD in the winter and HOT in the summer.  Bring a down jacket and boots.  Also bring sundresses and flipflops.  And to be the salt ad, when it rains, it pours, so bring a rainjacket /umbrella.

10.  How much I LOVE Seattle.  I always liked Seattle/Home a lot.  Loved it even.  But until coming to college I didn't fully appreciate how AMAZING of a city/place it is.  Which is not to say that the east coast/baltimore isn't great, sure, it is.  But it's nothing compared to Seattle. Good Coffee, Big Mountains, so much GREEN and pretty nature, Real Trees, Nice Drizzly Rain, Fresh Fruit!, amazing Salmon.... I could go on but I'll save it.

(Mount Ranier!! which you can see from ALL over the state (well the West (good) side) )

Thus I am obviously SOOO Excited to go home for Thanksgiving (and Winter!) Break!! Yay Pumpkin Pie!!!

Happy Week Before Thanksgiving!!

My Roommates are Better than Yours

So, in past I've told you a little bit about my roommates. I love living with them and they are absolutely awesome. I thought I'd write a little bit more about them and the craziness that takes place in our apartment.

The boys I live with are Sam and Matt.  Sam is a Philosophy and CogSci Double Major (he used to be Writing Sems but he left--SAD).  He also seems to run the Radio -- he's always doing stuff for it including meetings, teaching people how to use the equipment, making sure that it's running properly etc.  He does SARU (Sexual Assault Response Unit) with me, and I think he is the only boy who loyally goes to meetings. Yay Sam!!  And he does research on campus, but to be honest, I have no idea what his research is... Oops!!  Tonight we are going to the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to see Ani Difranco!!! One of my Favorite artists EVER. And she is AMAZING live.

Matt is a Computer Science major and it's quite obvious by hanging out with him...hehehe.  He worked at Google this summer, so our kitchen is stocked w/ brightly colored plastic "Google" cups. It's fun.  Matt's also in the Hopkins Orchestra and in Band.  He's president of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) and the other week they had a session on Lock Picking (I don't know how this has to do with Computers) and Sam went but Matt didn't invite me!! LOCK PICKING- how cool.  He also is involved with Radio.  Matt also just bought 'Guitar Hero' and keeps playing it instead of doing his homework....

The honorary member of our Apartment Family is Rena.  Rena is Matt's girlfriend and she's awesome--she's an International Relations and Econ double major.  One of the first times I got to know Rena we were both working on our final papers for CIP (Contemporary International Politics--GREAT CLASS) and both in line getting coffee at Cafe Q.  We were talking about what we were both writing on and I helped her figure out her thesis or topic or something--we had big plans to read/edit each others papers, but that fell through.  Anyway, Rena also works in Admissions (she gives interviews too among many other things) and works at Cafe Q.  She is also SUPER involved in Debate--she goes to tournaments almost every weekend. I have no idea how she does so much.

Okay,  so last night we were going to have mini dinner party that involved each of us inviting one guest! We (well, the boys) went grocery shopping, and were about to start making dinner and I felt really really sick, and then started throwing up so we had to cancel... BOO.  But they were really sweet and brought me movies and kept checking in on me. I think it was food poisoning because I feel totally fine today...(but scared to eat that much food), weird. But, the point is, we have a lot of fun together and generally try to have some fun even when we are all in the midst of paper writing and midterm taking.

I posted the other week on Family Dinners--we have a kitchen (!!!) So we've been utilizing it! Every week we try to have a family dinner and also have had a lot of fun making and baking things...
Yummy Banana-Berry muffins almost done!! And Chocolate Chip Cookies that Rena & I made! (Mostly Rena made them and I stood by and talked to her....)

Other than having fun with cooking/baking, we have some odd traditions in our apartment.

There are a few mice in our apartment (it happens. gross, i know) so we've had to kill them with micetraps.  And once there was a Cockroach and there is also a dead ladybug. We name our animals, like pets, except not.

Cockroach: Herbert
Mouse #1: Philbert
LadyBug: Sheila
Mouse #2: Augustus
Mouse#3: Darius
Mouse#4: Edmund

ahem... So, Some of the more normal things we do, are we have whiteboards where we write notes to each other... This one is reminding us of important things like paying rent.... It's also used for Thanking the boys for cleaning the kitchen, other notes for each other, and posting the discovery of our dead animals... (ie, #4--EDMUND)....

The other whiteboard that we have is used to keep track of our Daily Pullups... Okay so that's weird, but We have a pullup bar over our door, and we all keep track of how many pull-ups we do each day. We try to aim for 10 or 15.

Okay so that is a fun snapshot at my Apartment and the awesome people I live with!! In the meantime, I have to go make dinner and write a paper.  I unfortunately just decided to see how much work I have for the rest of the semester and its quite depressing. (10 more books to read, 6 more papers (~65 pages), and some workshops, short stories, random assorted readings etc...whooo!)

Basically that means I need to go find a place to live in the library.

One Fine Day

Hi. I just spent a long time composing a post and my computer froze. So that was NOT fun. Unfortunately I am going to bed really soon, so I do not have time to compose a long new one right now =(.

However, it has finally turned into Fall, and it is lovely.  I went on a nice long run during sunset today and it is quite beautiful.  Along with that I will leave you with some pictures from the Animal Garden between the Rec Center and Bloomberg:
Snail and paths.... (there is a horse in the background if you look closely =))

Camel...
Pretty Bench under the Gazebo--I LOVE to go here before my classes in Bloomberg and read. It's really pretty and quiet!!

Okay, bedtime for me because I have to wake up REALLLY early to go on a JHOC Climbing Trip! I'll write more soon I promise!!

PS. For all those of you who applied Early Decision, GOOD JOB GETTING YOUR APPS IN & GOOD LUCK!!!!!