Serenity Among The Chaos

Such a strange day, very off, and also very full of negativity. And yet at the same time, the day concluded in such a calm manner that I'd like to say that overall...the day was excellent, though it wasn't...


I had one class today, Introduction to Psychology. I don't mind the class to be honest, it's usually pretty interesting. My professor, Professor Meyers, is the definition of scatterbrained yet it's always entertaining and somewhat insightful. It's also comforting to see that someone else's head is more scattered than I feel mine is half the time. It went by fast and I had the entire afternoon off, until 330PM when I had to go to work for the night shift.


What else is new when I say I spent the day with Andrew for the most part. He wasn't in the greatest mood, so it was difficult to be around him without snapping back. But I didn't want to push him the wrong way, I tried to hold my ground and just understand that today was an off day. It was absolutely GORGEOUS today in Burly too! It may not have been super warm, but it was around 40 degrees and wonderfully sunny.


Since I had so much time off, I sat out on the front stoop of McDonald Hall with my book, Darkly Dreaming Dexter. I hadn't sat out on the stoop and relaxed since back in October or November, it was nostalgic to be sitting between the pillars all curled up with a book. No one was there to join me, but I was 100% okay with it. So many memories from the beginning of the year flooded back into my head. Those first few weeks, night after night, on the stoop with everyone in McDonald, constantly laughing and getting to know one another while getting to know ourselves. I remember wondering what each relationship would develop into, it was so much fun. I was reminded of when Christian and I would sit, just the two of us, and talk about life over a cigarette. But now it was just me and the stoop...and Dexter, everything is different. Not in a bad way, but everything changes.


Work was a lot different today. Usually on the night shift we call prospective students and ask if they have any questions about the school, basically if we can help them make their final decision by offering a student's hand and prospective on things. Tonight, we spent the night entering code into a program called Datatel. It only took about a half hour and my co-workers and I spent the rest of the shift, unsupervised, and watching Youtube videos.


I took a few minutes to wander Perry Hall, where I work. The sun was setting and it was breathtakingly beautiful. The sun was spilling through the windows and splashing every wall through the glass doors and against the polished wood floors. The pictures don't do it justice, but they're pretty.

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I could live in such a beautiful city and go to a gorgeous school. Perry Hall is a beautiful hall as well, I find it hard to believe that I work there. I really feel like a part of the school working there and being there, working at night, when the hall is sleeping...it's just wonderful, I love it. I took five minutes to sit in one of those rocking chairs and just watch the sun set, then headed back to work.

The day concluded with vegging out with Andrew and Lauren in my room. Andrew finished up some homework here because his room was occupied with people watching movies. Now I'm about to call it a night, since I need to get up at 730AM tomorrow. Kill me now.

The W Curve

A thought filled day today.


Very strange start to the day, which began at around 3AM for me. God awful time. A few weeks ago I had watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose with Andrew and since then I have been terrified of waking up at 3AM, which is apparently the "devil's hour". Whether or not I believe in all of that stuff, I was horrified at the thought. And when I woke up at 3AM feeling sick I was also petrified. I tossed and turned until 320AM after getting up for water twice. After falling asleep until 930AM, I got up to take my shower, but I had left a load of laundry in the dryer the night before, so I headed to the basement to get it. I'm running low on clothes, I basically NEEDED to get this laundry.


Lovely. Opened the dryer door to find out that nothing had dried because I used the shitty dryer. Grand. Once I'd moved past not having any clothes I really wanted to wear, which was irritating, I went on with my day. When I woke up I saw that it was snowing outside. I do like the snow, but recently it has been sunny and nice in Burly...the snow was kind of a downer this morning.

Andrew and I were both pretty tired today, so we were snappy and miserable for a majority of the day. When the two of us are tired, we're complete assholes, both in terrible moods. Putting us together when we're both like this is just asking for a fight, luckily we were pretty tame today and moved past the tiredness. The day seemed to bring isolation. I didn't see much of my roommates or anyone really, though I did have a nice lunch with Andrew and Gareth, who I haven't seen for a few days, so it was nice to sit and talk with him for a while. 

Now, as you may or may not know, my favorite TV show is Dexter, on Showtime. I just got into it this year and bought seasons 1-4 on DVD, watched season 5 online, and am greatly anticipating season 6 which will be premiering in September of this year. If you haven't seen it, you should! A serial killer who only kills "bad" people...may sound silly, I thought it was, until I saw it and became infatuated. Anyway, the show is based on the book called Darkly Dreaming Dexter, by Jeff Lindsay. Andrew got it for me for my birthday this year and I've been reading it and I LOVE IT. It's fantastic and I'm trying to read it without picturing the characters from the show. I've done a pretty good job, but it's difficult because the show is actually spot on. The character I'm getting to know in the book is the character I've been watching on Dexter. Such an accurate depiction of Dexter Morgan, it's uncanny. 

Sidenote: While in class I started thinking about my first year of college and the emotional things I had gone through and the growth that I'm still going through. A week or so ago, Morgan had told me about a letter Champlain had sent home to all parents that told them of what a first year student usually goes through while at college for the first time. How we would feel about home, school, the area, our lives, everything. Morgan said her mother had read off some things and Morgan was freaked to realize she had gone through everything when the letter said she would. I looked into this and found something called The W Curve, which shows the journey a first year college student takes emotionally. It scared me to see that I went through everything it talked about and I saw the same thing in my friends!

On a different note, this year I decided to start a new tradition for myself on my birthday. My birthday was on the 17th and I hadn't gotten a chance to start it up, but my plan was to get one balloon and tie a note to it that read a worry I was ready to get rid of. One of my roommates had swiped a few balloons from the recent Job Fair that was held here at Champlain and this was my chance! I took one of the balloons and wrote a note and tied it to it. It read "Uncertainty is always certain." I suppose it's not specifically a worry I'd like to get rid of, but something I've come to accept and live by. It was a nice first let go.

The photo is awful quality, but there it is! Andrew and I went outside to let it go and it flew high in the sky in just seconds. We spent fifteen minutes or so watching it get taken away by the wind. It climbed high and traveled far, I'm pretty sure it was hovering over Shelburne, the neighboring town, after five minutes. The tradition has begun and it did exactly what I wanted it to do. Watching the balloon let go and just drift on without a care helped me accept what I needed to and let go of what I needed to. And that note will stay with me until next year on my birthday when I turn the big 2-0! That's a scary, scary, scary thought, but it's a positive thing! Need to remember that. I took a short video of the balloon on its journey from the stoop of McDonald Hall to wherever it is now, check it out if you'd like!

Absent-Mindedness At It's Finest

Uhh, I'm surprised I didn't forget my own name yesterday. It's obvious that I completely forgot to post yesterday and that wasn't the only thing I had forgotten. My morning started off with me heading to the bathroom down the hallway to shower, half awake, and then realizing I had forgotten all of my shower supplies. Then I could never read the time right, I thought it was 945 at 1045, which couldn't be possible because my 930 class was ending. After that I was just all over the place and the day was busy as ever.


On a more positive note, I had my first Orientation Leader meeting yesterday at 330. We're definitely a lively bunch and Lina, our boss and coordinator, is an absolute crazy person in the best way possible. I can see myself being exactly like her when I'm older, hoping that's a good thing. Being an OL will be one of the most stressful things I've ever taken on, but everyone else seemed to really emphasize that the stress level will even itself out with the fun level. Training starts a week before the freshman move into the dorms. We go from training right into orientation weekend and during all of that, I have student ambassador training too! Having two jobs in that short period of time will be almost unbearable...again, in the best way possible.


At the meeting we got paired up with a "Big Sister/Brother" who has been an OL before and serves kind of as a mentor to the new OL's. My "Big Sister's" name was Sarah and we got along great. She's a junior and transferred to Champlain from another school near UMass. We'll have some fine as OL's and having Nick being an OL too is going to be a blast. I'm very excited to get started at the end of the summer. Recently, I'm realizing it more and more, that I am in love with this school. I get so excited to work for Champlain and be a part of the community. I found myself picturing me in Lina's place after graduation, working for Champlain and still being part of it after I've finished my education. Lina was an OL and an SA, like I am, so it was even more familiar. At this point I feel it's almost inevitable that I will try to work for Champlain after graduation. Burly has become my home and I don't want to part with it for more than my vacations throughout the year.

I also got my birthday care package from my mom today! She sent me a few shirts she had picked up and chocolate. Probably one of the best combinations of gifts I could ask for. Mama did well! Ghirardelli Carmel Filled Milk Chocolate Squares are my FAVORITE chocolate treat and so are Lindt Milk Chocolate Truffles. She knows me all too well. I snacked on these all day, breakfast consisted of chocolate and so did a late night snack. It's disgusting, but so so so heavenly at the same time. 

There's No Crying In Baseball

SUCH A GOOD DAY!!


Well, so far, so good. The day could go south, but seeing as it's almost 6PM I'm sure the day will remain in tact. At the moment I'm nomming on Swedish Fish, a $4 bag of Swedish Fish actually, that my good friend Kevin Dootz (Deutermann) picked up for me at Rite Aid yesterday. Today's checklist consisted of homework, homework, homework, and more homework, but it really turned into homework, baseball, Pabst, baseball, and never changing out of PJ's. The day had begun at around 12PM when the homework sessions started. Morgan, Andrew, and I sat ourselves down for a good ole' study session.

This lasted a good hour or so before the stir craziness kicked in. It's such a beautiful day in Burly, that the three of us were craving some outdoor activity, but we didn't truly cave in! Instead Andrew decided to hit the baseball around in our room, very close quarters, so to channel this I took him out in the hallway and we played nine innings of baseball. By the seventh inning I had earned myself a nice fat lip. Andrew had hit himself in the face with the ball while catching it and while I laughed, I dropped the bat and it him me in the face on my way to the floor. Genius, I know. It was the biggest fat lip I've ever had, nothing serious though. S'too bad, it would have been a cool battle wound. After a nice recovery period, the three of us decided to have a casual Pabst while finishing up more homework. 

A beer or two made the homework a little easier and the world a little bit funnier, but that's beside the point. Some homework was completed and this called for celebratory continuation of the baseball game. Andrew and I finished up our game with some music playing to keep us moving and we were joined by Mason and Zakk, two friends of mine from the dorm. Mason joined us in another beer and the game concluded. As of right now I'm still working on homework, ugh!

I have a paper to write for Introduction to Psychology, an annotated bibliography due for Concepts, homework problems due for Statistics (joy of joys), a paper due for Concepts, and a Global Module entry due for Concepts. IT NEVER ENDS, especially now that the year is slowly wrapping itself up. I can't believe that my first year in college is almost over, it's been nuts. I miss it already, a lot is going to change next year and a lot already has changed since the beginning of the year. The future can only look brighter I'd like to think, so here's to the next three years!

Where Is My Mind

Whelp, I haven't posted anything in two days now! The day was too busy and infuriating for me to have the patience to sit down and recap an awful day. To say the least, Statistics isn't going so well and Friday's make-up quiz did not help. 


First off, I show up at 10AM on the dot at my classroom and there is another class. Panicking, I sat down in the middle of the hallway and wrote an emergency email to my professor so he wouldn't think I was skipping out on it. I literally ran to his office in West Hall, which happens to be a two minute walk from my dorm, so walking to the center of campus wasted my time. I get there, he sits me down, and tells me that I can use a cheat sheet and my book. I didn't bring my book, so the second he leaves, I run out of the hall and to my room to grab my book without him knowing. I get back, take a look at the quiz, we hadn't done any of the material on the quiz in class, so I spent 45 minutes trying to work my way through it and guessing on half of it. By the end, I had a guaranteed 60 and that is if I didn't get anything else wrong. So I failed it. Lovely start to my day, which ended up having its ups and downs.


Yesterday on the other hand was a lot of fun and definitely relieved some carried stress! Me, Morgan, and Andrew decided to go out and do something yesterday and it ended up coming down to buying a baseball bat and a baseball and a football and having a day spent outside, even though it was freezing cold. Took the bus down to Rite Aid and purchased what we needed and spent the afternoon tossing around the football, playing 500, and running the bases. 

It was certainly an afternoon well spent. Got us moving and we got some fresh air, which I'm sure we all needed since schoolwork has been piled on lately as we near the end of the school year. It was a lot of fun to get outside and goof around for a while, we tend to goof around quite often, but letting lose completely and just enjoying each other's company was something we hadn't been able to do in a while. Playing baseball and such reminded me of when I was a little girl, my dad and I used to play wiffle ball all the time and pitching to Morgan and Andrew brought me back. It was definitely heartwarming :) Andrew had played baseball for years as well, so it was really cool to see him know what he was doing and show us different pitches. I get the feeling he was a very good player. Morgan has an arm on her as well, and she can catch! She didn't miss a single throw when we threw her the football. The wind wasn't on our side, but it didn't stop us from really taking advantage of a nice sunny day. 

Later on we spent the evening just relaxing and later on indulging in a few Pabst's. To be completely honest, they taste god awful. My co-worker, Chris, who is twenty-one bought me a 30 rack for Andrew and I on Friday, which was an adventure in itself. I walked to the liquor store and all the way to his apartment in South Burlington and got picked up with a backpack that weighed more than I did. Friday was spent with Chinese food and Pabst and a few good friends. Last night was spent with me feeling sick on and off and getting in a fight with Andrew. I don't need to go into details, but we moved past it and enjoyed the night as best we could, even though we couldn't find a place to be alone and drink by ourselves. It is frustrating, but summer is around the corner and we will be able to enjoy some serenity and seclusion. 

All in all, the weekend wasn't bad. It had its ups and downs as I said, but I think I got a lot out of it through the connections I have with my closest friends. I can never have a bad time if I'm with them. They make weathering the worst storms completely manageable and almost enjoyable at times.

Untitled

Statistics. Statistics. Statistics. I absolutely loathe everything that has to do with Statistics. I've been struggling since the class had begun back in January, but I've reached a point where I'm in deep shit, to be blunt. My professor and I had a talk after class and we tried to figure out something to get my grade up since it is really hurting at the moment. Making up a quiz on chapters I haven't done yet tomorrow morning at 10AM isn't exactly a good start to helping my grade pull itself out of a ditch, but I guess I don't have a choice right now. All I can really do is work my ass off for the remainder of the semester and hope for the best. Statistics is at 930AM, that was a lovely start to my day...the bad mood carried on for a majority of the day unfortunately.

I actually hadn't been to class in about a week, which means I missed two classes due to my ghastly sleep schedule which forced me to sleep through the class once and the other I missed due to sickness. So I was getting homework back from late February and starting in the beginning of another chapter in class. I am beyond confused. It's something I'll have to face and I'll probably have to fail a few more times, but I think after the quiz tomorrow and the test next week I can start somewhat fresh.

I very much enjoy my work and today was just as fun as it always is. I spent the entire shift at the front desk, which I actually prefer because I have time to myself. Recently I've been working on a short story, just for fun really. I just changed my major to Professional Writing and I've been trying to get back in the groove and get the creative juices flowing, but it's been difficult. I spent my shift working on my story and didn't have much luck. I resorted to watching Hey Arnold on Netflix. It may seem extremely childish and...well it is, I'm reliving my childhood though and I think it's because I'm trying to hold onto it as long as I can. Adulthood is around the corner and it's more than frightening. Cartoons at the moment are my outlet.

Though work was long and unproductive, my afternoon turned out to be great! Andrew and I took a trip downtown so I could pick up the film I got developed from my birthday bash last week. Burly is very cold lately, but that didn't stop us from walking up and down Church St a few times. We had to run to the bank to cash my last paycheck where we ran into a classmate of ours in the intersection. He was driving and we were walking, funny encounter. After that we went to Sky Burger for a bite to eat. Sky Burger is one the best if not the single best place to eat in Burly. It's a nice Mom and Pap's place, family owned and absolutely delicious. At the end of our meal which consisted of delicious Mama Sky Burgers, we got a Hot Fudge Sundae to split! I couldn't stomach any more food, but Andrew took care of that for me. It was topped with two cherries and roasted marshmallows, yum!


Once we were stuffed, we sat in Borders and looked at the photos I'd had developed. They were hilarious! And I didn't realize how much I had missed film! The moments that I had captured seemed so different in a film photo than in a digital one and the photo's themselves captured such funny moments. There were great ones, keepers for sure. I showed them to Morgan, Lauren, Nick, Gareth, and Andrew and each one of them laughed. It meant a lot. I put them in a photo album I had brought from home so I can start keeping my photos in one place. More film cameras will be purchased in the future.

 

Once the day had calmed down I tried to sit back and just enjoy the rest of my day. I spent some time with Gareth in his room just talking about our day a little bit and then took the rest of the night to watch some shows with Andrew. All in all it was a good day, though it started off rocky. Hopefully things will pick up!

90's Flashback

8AM is too early for anyone to be up and about! Though if you have a 930 class and you have trouble getting out of bed, then I guess it's the only real solution.


I woke up to a beautiful day in Burlington, VT. It's been nice on and off for the past few days, crazy New England weather. Yesterday was cloudy and cold and we even saw some snow, but today it's fantastically sunny. Complete whiplash weather wise.

It's always nice to take a break from the day and sit on the stoop on the second floor. It overlooks the back parking lot and the tops of the buildings on Church St. The view of the lake during sunset is unbelievably beautiful, but today it was nice to just stop in my tracks and snap a shot of the view, it never ceases to amaze me, even though today was a chilly day. 

Andrew and I spent a nice hour or so at lunch in the dining hall and I wanted to get another updated shot of McDonald Hall, which is the most beautiful dorm on campus in my opinion, I could just be biased because it's where I live, that's beside the point though. After this I ate shit on an elevated part of sidewalk near the stairs. Good thing I broke the fall with my face, all in tact though. Andrew almost peed himself laughing, his legs buckled and he was crying his eyes out for a good five minutes. 

After that lovely ordeal, I spent the afternoon watching movies and enjoying the time alone in the room that I rarely get. My friend Alec got a hold of me at one point and told me that my birthday gift had been delivered! He came down and I got an O.A.R shirt! It was one of the best gifts I received, next to the books I got from Andrew and the scarf and gift cards from Gareth. I'm a new fan of O.A.R, but I absolutely love them. Andrew was a little jealous, he introduced me to O.A.R in the first place and he doesn't have a shirt yet. I'm sure mine would fit him, snuggly :)

I'm writing this from work in the Admissions Office right now. Now finally to talk about the title of this post! Last night I was browsing Netflix, since I just got an account, and I came across The Wild Thornberry's, the entire first season! It was one of my FAVORITE shows on Nickelodeon when I was younger and to relive it is so fun. I've watched three episodes so far and it's funny how short they are. When I was little, each episode and each big adventure seemed to last forever, like a full length feature film, now they're quick and simple. It's funny how differently you see things as you get older. It's even funnier that I can still say the lines along with some of the episodes!

Whelp, I might as well focus on something productive in work. I still have to make up my midterm for Introduction to Psychology and a missing assignment :( I've got a lot to catch up on this week, but it's hard when things keep piling up. Argh!

Chao

Good Day, Sunshine

Hello blogging world!

Third time's the charm, I suppose? I've given this blogging thing tries before and it's never truly stuck! I thought I might as well give it another shot. Hopefully, I can post a little something every day. I find it nice to be able to go back and revisit my day, allows time for reflection.


This morning I spent about a half hour searching for my phone in my bed. That's what I get for falling asleep with it under the covers. Turns it out it had fallen off to the side of my lofted bed and rested itself on top of the DVD collection we have on top of the fireplace mantle. At least it was safe!


My birthday was just last week and my good friend Andrew gave me my final present yesterday because it had just come in, in the mail! Hello, Hanson 5of5 Mug!

I'd had my eye on it for months now and to my surprise, I opened up a small box to find it! Thanks, Andrew! I just broke it in with some nice hot chocolate as well, while vegging out to Ray LaMontagne alone in my room. Love the roommates, but it's nice to have the room to myself once in a while.