It's Been a While

Wow. It's been over five months since I lasted posted anything here. I bet most of you thought I was dead - if anybody even reads this blog at all. I got so caught up with living life that I had no time to write about life.

So, to play catch-up, here's a quick rundown of how the previous five months went:


August: In August, I turned 20. My mother took me out shopping for my birthday, and we had a fantastic time. I moved back into my dorm at Montevallo the second-to-last week of August, and this year, my bed is lofted. Same roommate, but this year we've got everything figured out.

In September, Matt introduced me to Skyrim, and that's what I did with my life for the next few weeks. I'm an Imperial, and I decided to join the Stormcloaks, and I'm a vampire as well. I'm still not exactly sure what I'm DOING in the game, but I'm having fun.

September was also the month where I realized that taking all English classes was going to go very badly for me. And I learned that Philosophy is SO not my forté. I'm still trying to figure out how I passed the class, to be honest, because nothing that I "learned" in that class made any sense to me.

October was the month that meant the most to me. I QUIT TREETOP and am now working at Books-a-Million. Yay! I also went to two weddings, each very unique. I dressed up as Raven for Halloween, and I have no pictures ready-to-go on my phone for that experience. Sorry! My room didn't win the door prize contest, but we did get honorable mention. Matt & I celebrated our one-year on October 29.

In November, I got a cold that kicked my butt, and had to make my first 'adult' purchases. I bought Publix-brand DayQuil & NyQuil (generic stuff that's just as good, if not better, than the name-brand!), some tissues, and a cow-shaped thermometer. It's a kids' thermometer, but it was also cheaper than the regular thermometers by about $10. The cow was $5, the plain adult ones were $14.99. And since I'm all about not having boring things, I was super-excited about this.

November was my most stressful month, school-wise. I had projects and papers and deadlines like nobody's business. I'm still not sure how I did all of them on-time. Next semester, I'm not going to be NEARLY as lasseiz-faire about them!

Matt celebrated his 25th birthday on the 14th, and I got him a Killing Joke statue - which he flipped over.

And now we come to December, where I passed my classes with a 3.8 GPA still (two B's and three A's this semester - I'm hoping to get that to ALL A'S next semester).

I've been working about 24 hours every weekend, eight hours a day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It's really wearing me out, but the paychecks are really nice. About $280 every two weeks. It means I had plenty of money to go Christmas shopping with.

Christmas was amazing -- we had more presents under the tree than ever before, mostly because of things I had bought my family. The present I enjoyed the most was the cross-stitch my sister made me; I'll have to put it up at some point!

Now that Christmas is over, I'm hoping this next semester is going to calm down a little so I can continue to blog - I miss it.




It's been an interesting few months, that's for sure! I still can't believe everything I accomplished in such a short amount of time - obviously, this list isn't comprehensive, or else I'd be here all night.

But as it is 1:30 a.m., on the last night of the year, I'm going to wrap this up and go ahead and publish it. 

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! (And happy birthday to my best friend, Hunter!)

100 Happy Days - Week Two

Well, I guess we know the answer to the question I asked last week - will I make another post before Saturday? Nope. I'll try to do something this week, but no promises. Anyways, let's get on to the pictures!

 Day 6: Waves! I wore my hair in twin braids all day, and when I took it out that night, my hair was really wavy and pretty. I wish I could do this every day, but alas, my hair has to be washed in the morning. Were I to do this at night, my hair would be oily and gross by the end of the next day.

I bought myself some sea-salt spray from Wal-Mart, because I heard that's a good way to get waves, and so far it works a bit, but nothing like braiding my hair does.

You'll notice that Day 7 is missing: for whatever reason, my phone wouldn't upload the picture. If you're curious, it was a Chickfila cup. I absolutely adore Chickfila.

 Day 8: Headbands! I went shopping with my mother on Tuesday, and after picking my cowgirl boots up from the shoe repair shop (I had to get the heels replaced), we went by Claire's and I got two new headbands. I really like them. I don't know why I've recently gotten into headbands, but they're easy to wear and I can wear them with most anything.

I never liked headbands when I was little because they always seemed to pinch. I don't know why I like them now.

 Day 9: Quilting! Mom and I are making an appliqued kitty cat quilt, and today we cut out the hearts and the panels. We cut out the cats a few weeks ago - we got ten different types of calico fabric from Hobby Lobby, and cut out two of each type, one facing left and one facing right.

We started this quilt as something to do while we waited for the stencils for my other quilt to come in. It doesn't look like they're going to be coming in any time soon, so this quilt is going to be the one taking over our time...if I'm able to get it all put together by the time school starts again, it'll be a miracle! I'm really excited, though!

 Day 10: Baby Bunny! We had this baby trapped in our garage for a whole night. It ran in Wednesday morning while dad had the door open, and we couldn't get it out.

Dad set traps for it on Wednesday night, big steel cages that have weight-sensitive springs. He put carrots and lettuce and water in each cage. Wouldn't you know it? The bunny ate every bit of the food and drank most of the water, but he was too light to spring the traps!

We were finally able to corner him on Thursday afternoon, and it took all four of us! Eventually, the bunny was caught and returned to the garden, where he hopped away. (I think he's out of the nest now, though. Which is how he got trapped in the garage.)

Day 11: Hope Chest! A few months ago, I bought a picture at Home Goods that I wanted to use for my future home. I had a trunk in my room, but it was full of middle school junk that I just didn't want to deal with. Fast-forward to yesterday, when Mom and I went shopping at Home Goods again. I found some Italian Crystal glasses, $8 for 4 (I bought two boxes) and some washcloths to match my picture.  Once we got home, I decided to tackle that trunk. It was full of the most ridiculous stuff - why did I keep any of this? I'm sure it was treasure when I was little, but now it's just junk. I bagged and trashed it, and after vacuuming out the trunk, I turned it into what my mother calls a "hope chest." It contains stuff I hope to use in my future home.

Day 12: 100 Reasons. My nine-months with my boyfriend is coming up soon, and it's going to be a BIG DEAL. This marks the longest relationship he's ever had with somebody. (Before me, his longest was eight months.)

I decided to do something special in addition to the claddaghs we're exchanging on the date. (Promise rings. He can't afford an engagement ring right now, so we're doing the next best thing.) I found a little printable online for a booklet, so I printed it out (I wish it wasn't pink!) and filled it in.

It took a lot longer than I thought it would. I couldn't figure out how to word a lot of things, but I got all 100 completed tonight. I can't wait to give him this booklet! I bet he cries.





How did your week go? Did you have anything particularly happy or exciting happen? Please let me know! I hope to see you sometime this week, but I don't know if I'll be able to blog before next Saturday. See you soon!

100 Happy Days - Week One

Day Two: A Cat and Her Bowl.  At some point, we started feeding our cats the leftover milk in our cereal bowls. I guess we started this when they were still kittens, so they have had plenty of time to learn, like Pavlov's Dog. 

Now, every time a spoon clinks against something, the kitties come running, and they stare. I think it's cute. A little irksome at times, but it makes me happy. The cats come up and stare at you until you give in, lower your bowl, and let them sniff whatever you've been eating.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, they look at you with unrivaled disgust, like How dare you presume I'll eat that?, flick their tails, and saunter away.

I love cats.

 Day Three: Fireworks. Every third of July, we go to my parents' friend's house to watch the fireworks that the City of Chelsea puts on - The Big Kaboom. The Kaegals do a cookout (hot dogs and hamburgers), and everyone else brings a side dish and dessert to share. The little kids swim in the pool, and the adults socialize. My sister and I usually end up walking around the big green where vendors are set up and see what kind of free stuff we can get. (I like free popcorn.)

Then we settle down in camping chairs in the Kaegals' front lawn to watch the fireworks. Their house has the perfect view of the show. We've gone for four years, and I don't think we'll be stopping any time soon. 

Fireworks make me happy.

 Day Four: Libba Bray. I love this author, and not just because she's replied to me on Twitter before. She really captures what it's like to be a teenager.

I've read two of her series: the Gemma Doyle trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and That Sweet Far Thing) and the first book of the Diviners trilogy (The Diviners). She's a brilliant writer, and her female characters are strong and, well, different. They're not constantly pining over what man they should date. They're not worried about fitting into society. They're different. They're strong. They're amazing. 

In short, if you'd like a beautiful Victorian series to try, pick up A Great and Terrible Beauty. If you're in the mood for something more flapper-ish, The Diviners will do that for you.

Day Five: Papa John's. Ah, pizza. I love pizza. And Papa John's is my favorite. It's always been my favorite, I guess because they use the right amount of sauce, they don't do funky things to their crust, and their garlic butter sauce is absolute divine. 

I've never really liked other pizzas: Domino's does weird things to their crust. Little Caesar's tastes like cardboard. Pizza Hut is tough. Papa John's is the best delivery.

Now, the best restaurant pizza is a tie between the little café in the Wiesbaden, Germany commissary and Nick & Al's Pizzeria in Meridian, Mississippi. (If you're ever in either place, CHECK THEM OUT!!!)







So there you have it! My first week of the Happy Days challenge is complete! Are you going to do it? What made you happy this week? Sound off below! I'll see you next week for the Week Two wrap-up, and hopefully I'll have other blog posts before then!

100 Happy Days - Begin!

Today was a phenomenal day. 

Absolutely incredible.

Today, Matt and I went to Splash Adventure. It's a water park near Birmingham that's been having problems ever since my family moved to Alabama. It's gone through a couple of owner changes and the conditions have just degraded to the point where it's been overrun with...unsavory characters. (It's not in the best part of town, you see.) However, a new set of owners bought it out in March, and they've been working their hardest to make things better.

I've been to this water park about five years ago, when it was still called Alabama Adventure, and it was...meh. Over-priced and really boring, to be honest. But today...

TODAY.

I picked Matt up from his hotel at 10:00 sharp, and we went on an adventure to find this place. (See what I did there? ... Sorry.) My GPS led us to the wrong place (not where the signs did), so we had to do a lot of adventuring to find it. We did, though, and got to the park before it opened, and managed to get a first-row parking spot.

The day was just awesome from then on out. Once we got inside, I rented a locker (it was easy - everything's on a digital barcode on your entrance wristband!), we took off our outer clothing (leaving just our bathing suits), and went to try out the Aqua Maze.

Then we did a really crazy water slide - a halfpipe thing...terrifying really - and started out our day on a good note.

After that we did the wave pool, then the tube slides (there are four of them!),  then we did the lazy river. And we repeated those three things (really the only three things, besides the kiddie area, the terrifying half-pipe slide, and the ultra-fear-inducing almost-straight-down plummeting slide) for the next seven hours.

It was heaven.

We put on sunscreen every hour (the park offered free sunscreen!!), and neither of us got burned, although we did get a little red from where the inner tubes rubbed off the sunscreen between applications. Lunch and the snacks were good, and there was practically nobody there the entire day. It was nice.

Matt and I celebrated our eight months on Sunday, but this was really our celebration day. We had a fantastic time. Although the park was a little pricey, it was a great special occasion date for the two of us. 

Anyways, I'd better get to bed. I have to get up really early tomorrow. I hope everyone had a great day as well! 

(Also, I figured I'd better make it clear that I won't be posting a Happy Day picture every single day, at least not on here. On Instagram, yes I will. Here, I'll just be posting a weekly wrap-up. Every Saturday, I'll post the week's pictures and go over them. If you want to keep up with me daily, click on the Instagram link I just posted and follow me!)

Headrush

It's been a while since I last posted.

I could offer a lot of excuses to you. 

I could tell you that I've been busy with work.

I could tell you that I've been busy reading Game of Thrones.

I could tell you that life in general has just gotten in the way.

I could tell you that the words have stopped coming.

And while all of those would be true, the last one is truer than most. I guess since I got out of school for the summer, I haven't had many things to write about, if anything at all. Sometimes there are days when I want to sit down and blog about what's happening in my life, but then I think back to what I'm only going to refer to as the incident, and I'm scared to write on this blog.

It's been almost a month and I'm still scared to write about my life and how I'm doing.

Which is why I'm writing now. 

I'm going to be starting this thing called 100 Happy Days on Instagram, hopefully very soon. Maybe around the first of the month, so that I can start on an even number. Basically, it's a challenge to find one happy thing a day, for one hundred straight days. In this busy world, can you even find one happy thing a day? Considering how down in the dumps my life has been lately (I'll see if I can get over my fear at some later point to talk about those things), I'm going to try and use this as the motivation that I need to get back into the world of blogging.

I may not do a blog post every single day, but I'll certainly try to at least do them once a week, with all the pictures that I've taken from that week. If people who have been around since my last blog remember my weekly updates, that's kinda what this is going to be. A weekly update of the happy pictures that I've taken and what made me so happy. That's a series that I'm going to start in July.

I've been going through some things lately, and these things have been hard. Sometimes all I do at the end of the day is cry into my pillow. I need to turn things around. I need to get some things straight in my life. And I need to show people that I'm not afraid.

I can't tell you if I'll be back with blog posts before my 100 Happy Days project starts in July, but I'm certainly going to try my hardest.

Thanks for still being out there, guys :) Thanks for believing in me. You're the greatest.

I'm Going to Get Hurt For This Post...

...but I really don't like John Green's writing style.

Don't get me wrong - I like him. I've only seen a few YouTube videos (mostly things that mental_floss has had him do), but what I've seen, I've really liked. I've also seen all the .gifs on Tumblr, and those have made me respect him. I love what he's doing for people who feel like they're alone in this world. I just don't like his writing style.

I guess it's just me. A few years ago, I had Looking For Alaska handed to me, and was told it was the greatest book I was ever going to read in my life. So I read it. And I hated it.

Maybe it's because I kinda can't stand slice-of-life books. The same thing happened with me while reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I didn't like it. I've been told time and time again that the book is a life-changer, but I could never see it.

I appreciated 13 Reasons Why, but I didn't come away from it thinking it was the greatest book in the history of the world.

People used to look at me funny when I said I loathed Nicholas Sparks books. They're all the same story, just with different names for characters and events. They're sappy and unoriginal and stale. There are so many books out there that give much better character development (the Game of Thrones series, anyone?) and twists like you wouldn't expect (the Gemma Doyle trilogy). They're imaginative, funny, thrilling, and heart-wrenching in ways you would never get from books like Sparks'. 

Maybe it's because sappy books make me yawn. There's no thrill in them. Okay, so she died. Okay, they're going through a rough time, and look - there's an accident, and he doesn't come back home. He leaves. She falls apart. Something happens that makes everything all right again. Same storyline. Where's the adventure? The excitement? 

Give me a book like The Hobbit (J. R. R. Tolkien), Leviathan (Scott Westerfeld), The Looking Glass Wars (Frank Beddor), Airman (Eoin Colfer), Harry Potter (J. K. Rowling). Give me an epic world and a masterful storyline. (The world doesn't have to be fictional, either. Airman is a beautiful book.) Let me watch the characters stumble and fall, then pick themselves up (or get picked up) and continue on their journey. Give me unforgettable locations and battles. 

It's the same thing with manga - I tried things like Ouran High School Host Club and other Slice-of-Life mangas (as well as animes!) but nothing ever stuck with me. I'd read a few chapters and get bored with the repetitiveness. Now, FullMetal Alchemist? Attack on Titan? Cowboy Bebop? Brilliant. 

Of course, everyone's going to have differing opinions. That's the beauty of books - there's something out there for everyone, for every single soul on this planet. You may enjoy Nicholas Sparks, you may enjoy clichéd storylines and recycled material. There may be joy in having real life thrust upon you in books. None of that holds anything for me. I try my hardest to stay away from all that. Books are there for me to escape into when the real world, with cancer and car wrecks and divorce and suicide, becomes too much for me. Give me a heroic journey with an epic finish. Let me know that there's still some good in the world.

Happy Sixteenth Birthday, Sarah!

My little sister turned sixteen today, and the first thing she did was go down to the DMV and exchange her Driver's Ed Completion certificate in for her driver's license. So if anybody out there values their life, you should probably stay off the roads for another decade or so. Probably.

Mom and Dad bought her a banjo for her birthday - a Fender one, and it came with extra strings, finger picks, an instructional CD, a learning book, and a case (a soft bag, not a hard one). It's a really, really pretty banjo, and she certainly wasn't expecting it in the slightest! 

I got her a Lumpy Space Princess pillow from my workplace - I had to fight my best friend, Hunter, for it because he wanted it too and we only had one. I won because I had enough tickets on-hand to buy it straight away. I may buy her a t-shirt or something tomorrow because I'm going out with Matt for our seven-months.

Sarah's having a sleepover in the basement with two of her friends right now, and tomorrow' they're going thrifting and possibly going to 2nd & Charles as well. (I absolutely love that store. We discovered it last year on her birthday. I have no idea how we hadn't heard about it before then!)

Have a great day!

My First Real Cosplay!

I have some really exciting news to share with y'all this evening - I've decided on what my first EVER, proper cosplay is going to be: Raven, from Teen Titans. 

I'm basing my look off of her Teen Titans television show - you know, the one from Cartoon Network in the mid-2000s? I've decided that's what would be the easiest for both my limited sewing skills and my poor college-kid budget.

The picture to the right is a reference that I'll be using to design my costume.

Now, what exactly will I use to piece together this costume? 

I started out by browsing cosplaying websites, to see what ideas other people had come up with. As it turns out, my room mate actually gave me the biggest lead: where to find the cape.

In the original Teen Titans show, Raven's cape/cloak is blue, with a black underneath. (Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good picture to use for the reference I showed you above). She's usually cosplayed with a blue cloak, though, so that's what I decided to go with.

This is the cloak I've decided to purchase. My room mate has two different cloaks that she got for Christmas and her birthday, so she was able to give me a great website to buy cloaks from. They're really good quality, and they're warm. I can always get it taken up: my mom knows how to hem things. I'd want it to be a removable hem, because I might want to use that cloak again sans-cosplay.

After the cloak comes what's underneath the cloak: the leotard. Now, as you can plainly see, Raven wears a turtleneck. Unfortunately for me, I can't STAND turtlenecks. I've never been able to wear them. Fortunately for me, I can wear normal leotards, so that's what I've decided to buy.  It won't be perfectly show-accurate, but I'd rather be comfortable, to be honest. Plus, the zipper on the back of the turtleneck leotard is rumored to be very irritating on the skin -- I read about 300 Amazon reviews last night when I was debating on what type of leotard to buy.

After the cloak and the leotard come the stockings, or the tights. Since Raven's skin is gray, I'm going to have to do some kind of skin-paint on my face and chest. To keep from having to paint my legs up, I'm going to just buy nice-quality gray tights to keep my legs paint-free. I have a nice pair of red stockings/tights that don't show any skin at all - they don't "thin out" anywhere, neither my knees nor my ankles. (All the girls reading this understand what I'm talking about here!) I just need to find a pair of gray ones - perhaps multiple ones, so I can have a backup! - to complete my costume.

I thought I'd  be able to use my own pair of ankle boots - but they have heels, so they're probably not appropriate Con-wear. Or Cobblestone-Streets-of-Montevallo wear. I'll probably end up buying myself a pair of no-heel ankle boots somewhere this summer. I'll make sure I can wear them with other things, of course, so I'm not buying an expensive pair of shoes just to wear with a costume.

After that, it's a simple matter of making Raven's belt and cloak-brooch thing, and I'll be all set. (I can make those out of felt, and sew them to the leotard so that they don't fall down, and safety-pin it to the cloak so it's easily removable.) 

Oh, and I have to purchase a purple wig. I can find that in any number of places on the internet, so I'm not too worried about that. It's just a matter of typing "Teen Titans Raven Cosplay Wig" into eBay or Amazon, and I'll be good to go!

All together, I'm probably looking at a $200 cosplay here, maybe $150 at the LEAST. The cloak is $60 by itself, and then the leotard is $20. The two most expensive things are going to be the cloak and the boots. I'm waiting for a REALLY GOOD PAYCHECK before I buy the cloak. I'll collect the parts slowly over the summer and then assemble them at the end.

Best of all, Matt wants to be the Beast Boy to my Raven. (Of course, he needs to lose a little weight around the middle if he wants to fit into some tights!) I think it'd be an absolutely adorable couples' costume. We could probably win a costume contest somewhere - or at least I could. I don't know how many people would be excited to see a man in tights!

I'm hoping to take this cosplay to Dragon*Con someday, but I'll settle for the small Kami-Con that Birmingham throws every year in January. I just need to figure out a way to work some kind of bag into my cosplay. I don't want to have to carry everything, of course! I'm thinking a simple over-the-shoulder satchel that I can wear against my body. Shouldn't be too difficult.

And of course, I'll take picture of my progress and show y'all EVERYTHING!

Anyways, what do you think? Do you have any ideas? Suggestions? Do you think I'm getting in over my head? Or, do you side with my mother in thinking that I'm too old to play dress-up?

Free Comic Book Day

 I do apologize for the EXTREME lateness of this post (it's a whole week late), but I've just been so busy lately that I haven't had time to sit down and just work on my blog. I'm going to have to remedy that this summer, and get a nice stack of draft posts built up so that I have something to publish when the going gets rough during my JUNIOR year of college. 

Anyway -- FREE COMIC BOOKS! I'd never been into comic books before I started dating my current boyfriend - I owned a few Scooby Doo ones, and I enjoyed reading Betty and Veronica, but I wasn't into the whole Marvel-vs-DC war thing. But when Matt mentioned our comic shop (Legion) was doing free comic book day, I jumped on the chance for an outing with him. My sister tagged along, too, and I really hope she had fun, despite Matt's incessant yammering.

We got there about 30 minutes early, just to be sure there would be comics when we got there. They didn't open until 11:00, and we got there around 10:30. You never know with Birmingham traffic and all if you'll make it to your destination on time. 

One of our friends from Montevallo, Miles, was there, so we had him to talk to while we waited for the doors to open. The owner's kid was also running around inside the store, pressing his nose to the glass and taunting everyone with the comics that we were waiting for.

Once 11:00 hit, the owner's wife stepped out and gave us a few simple rules: No being rude, only one of each comic per person, and show your comics to the cashier to check out. Easy enough. So we all filed inside, one-by-one, and went down the table, collecting the comics that we wanted to read. 

I got a huge stack of them, but I didn't get all of them. Next year, I'm going to pick up one of every comic, even if they don't interest me, because maybe someday they'll be worth something. I did get some cool ones, though, most notably a hardcover comic anthology called Mouse Guard. It seems to have been really popular - someone came in about half an hour after Legion opened asking if they had any more. (Sorry, buddy, but if you want the whole collection on Free Comic Book Day, you'd better get to the comic shop early!)

Next year, I'm going to ask my friend Hunter to come with me. I'm sure he'd have fun. I think he's been to Legion a few times, but he doesn't have a box there. I picked up a few comics just for him, like the Kaboom comic, the Megaman X/Sonic comic, and the Power Rangers comic. He didn't get to go this year because he was working, so I wanted to give him something special.

After we finished up at Legion, Matt, Sarah, and I went over to the Brookwood Mall and shopped a bit. I had some Hot Cash to use at Hot Topic, and Sarah got a record from Coconuts on our way out of the Summit. We had a great afternoon, and got back home by 3:00 that evening. 

Have you ever been to Free Comic Book Day? Are you going next year?

Year's End

WELL.

What. A. Year.

What an absolutely crazy, positively spectacular, definitive year.

I don't think I've had such a wonderful year since my senior year of high school. This is probably my top school year, ever. (I know, I know: my senior year was only two years ago. But it feels like so much longer ago.)

What made this year so much different from last year? What made this year be so rockin'?

FRIENDS.

I actually made friends this year, mostly through my roommate and me going out to different events, and it made this year a million times better. Last year, my roommate and I didn't go out to events, and I only went out at the very end of the year and met a couple people at a late-night Steak & Shake run because my (then-current) boyfriend was off in BCT and I didn't have anybody else to talk with. 

THIS YEAR.... This year was so different. I dragged my roommate places this year, and she introduced me to other people who had come into the Honors Program as a freshman, just like her. She was a freshman, and I was a sophomore, and most of the new friends that I made were freshmen. I guess that's just something I do easily - make friends with the younger people. My best (male) friend is a grade below me [you remember all my posts about Hunter, right?], after all.

I'm actually excited to go back to college this fall - and not the least bit because I'll be able to see my boyfriend nearly every day of the week. I miss my friends, and my roommate in particular, already. Sure, it's nice being in my own room, with my cats and my books, but I had a lot of fun running around campus and going to weird events with my new friends.

I managed to finish out the second semester on the Dean's List (I got President's List last semester), with a 3.6 GPA. Overall, with all four semesters combined, I'm sitting at a steady 3.8 GPA, which would qualify me for the President's List if they did an overall thing. I got two B's this semester, one in Spanish 202 and one in my English 300 class. The English professor hated me, and she's just not suited to be a teacher in general. She talked down to us, changed the grading scale at the last minute (AFTER finals!), and was just a terrible teacher in general. I learned nothing in that class that I didn't learn in my ninth grade English classes. I'll be trying my hardest never to get her again.

Now I'm ready to tackle the summer - gotta work a TON so that I'm able to afford all the things that I want for my dorm next year. Gonna be a long, hard summer, but hey - four months of earning spending money? If only I could get the hours I want now...

Anyways, see you tomorrow for my post about Free Comic Book Day! I know y'all are going to be looking forward to that! 

Six Months!

Last Tuesday marked six months since Matt and I started dating, and it's been the most wonderful six months that I've ever lived through. So, to celebrate (despite the bad weather), we went out to the mall and ate at Five Guys and then we went to Build-a-Bear.

I've never been to Build-a-Bear before, because we didn't have any around us when I was growing up. Then, when we moved here, I was "too old" to do one, and they were "too expensive" for my parents to buy me one.

But when I mentioned to Matt that I'd never been, he picked up on the hint and took me to Build-a-Bear for our six-month anniversary. It was awesome! The ladies that helped us were really, really nice, too. 

They made us do the Bear Ceremony, too, even though we're both in college. It was awesome!

What we did was, we went in and looked at the outfits and the animals. We told each other our top three picks in the animals department, then I went outside while he built my animal. Once he was done, we switched, and I made him one. Then we took our boxes and went to the Food Court, where we could look at what we had made.

Matt made me a bunny in a Captain American costume with a tutu from the Hello Kitty collection. It was absolutely adorable. I've named her Peggy. 

I made Matt a monkey in a Superman outfit with Aviators. He loved it. (I also got him a little Lego Joker keychain, and he absolutely loved that as well.) 

We then got the lady who helped Matt to take our picture with our animals. I haven't slept a night without Peggy since.

After we got our animals, we walked around the mall, and I was able to get the new Bravely Default 3DS game at GameStop. We looked in Spencer's, and then we went home. We even got home before the bad weather hit. 

It was a wonderful day :) I'm sorry I've been so late in posting this, but Finals took over my life last week, and this has been my first day to actually sit down and blog (even though I'm supposed to be cleaning my room at this moment). Look forward to the year-end wrap-up, and then my experiences at Free Comic Book Day coming up in the next few days, okay? 

Storms and School

It's been three years since the last round of deadly tornados hit Alabama, and it looks like it's about time for the next round to hit. That's why, instead of studying for my chemistry test at the moment, I'm sitting in Erin's room, with my laptop and all of the stuff I need for my final English paper, watching the Weather Channel.

The storms aren't supposed to get here until around four to six p.m. From what the weather people are saying, things are going to get bad. This same storm system went through Arizona and Arkansas last night, killing eighteen people in total and injuring dozens more.

Erin and Maggie have both packed Bug-Out Bags, just in case we have to evacuate Brooke and go somewhere else. Erin even packed a big can of pepper spray, "because of looting." It's the fact that she thinks things are going to get so bad that people will loot that is worrying me. 

At the moment, the University has shut down. I won't be able to take my Chemistry exam this afternoon, so I'm going to have to make it up at some point down the line. I'm hoping it won't be too much of an inconvenience, but I really need to take that test. I'm hovering at an 88% in the class, and I NEED to have at least a 90%. In fact, I have two 88s this semester and two 89s. So I need to make at least a 90 on all of my finals in order to bring those up to an A. If I can do that, then my life will be okay. 

Anyways, if any of you are in the path of the storms, stay safe. Pack a bag if you feel like you need it, and watch the news. Be careful!

Finals Week Approaches!

It's Finals Week again! (I can just hear the anguished screams echoing from libraries around the country.) Yes, Finals Week, that week where you want to tear out your own hair, curl up into a ball, crawl into a corner, and die.

We've all been there.

For some reason, though, this semester has been worse than others. Maybe it's the fact that January pretty much screwed up the rest of the semester (you know, when we had those snowstorms that closed the schools for a week?). Or maybe it was the ice storms in February. (Also, there's now a warning that tornados or other bad weather could possibly delay our final exams, which is terrifying to think of and also a little exciting, because we all want extra days to study. But having to stay in school for a little longer because of the weather? No thank you. I want OUT!)

I've given my final presentation in my COMS class (I got a 93% on it, which I'm rather proud of), and I've also given my paper presentation for my English class. That one didn't go off as well as I wish it would've, but I did manage to pull a 93% out of that one as well. I just have to knock the final paper out of the park and I should be home-free.

I'm really worried about my grades in four of my classes because I'm hovering right on the edge of an A. I have 89s in two of my classes and 88s in two more, but a solid 94 in my fifth class. (I'm not worried about my COMS class. I've already completed my final paper, which was a reflection paper that was the easiest thing I think I've ever done.) 

So what do I have left to do in my sophomore year of college? I have a final paper due in English, a portfolio due in my Creative Writing class, a final exam in Chemistry, and a final exam in Spanish. Also, my COMS class is going out to eat at the Mexican restaurant in town on Monday, so I think that's going to be really interesting. It'll give us a time to talk about the class and maybe even get a look at the grades we got on our reflection papers. I hope I did mine right...

The paper for English is going to give me the most trouble, mostly because I haven't even started writing it yet. In fact, I'm up at midnight, blogging, when I should be sleeping because I have an early (and long) shift at TreeTop tomorrow. And it's gonna suck, because I'm going to be in café for the whole day. Well, from 9:30 - 5:30, which I guess is okay. Usually the opening shifts go until 6:30. I'm going to have to work on my portfolio when I get back, though. My English paper isn't due until Wednesday, but my portfolio's due Tuesday.

I'm really worried. The teacher doesn't seem to like me (my English teacher, that is). I certainly don't like her. I haven't learned anything in her class that I didn't already learn in ninth and tenth grade. This class was seriously a waste of time and money (that I could've spent working on my major and actually LEARNING things). Unfortunately, the class I took was English 300, which is REQUIRED in order for you to become an English major. I wish I could've found someone better to take this class with; maybe I would've actually enjoyed it! As is, I seriously considered opening a window and jumping to my death from the second floor of Comer. It was that bad.

Anyway, I'd better stop complaining and actually get some sleep, otherwise work is going to be absolute murder tomorrow. (Or today, really. It's past midnight, after all.)

For now, I'll leave you with a picture of my angry cat sitting on my Spanish textbook.

Goodnight, y'all!

Happy Easter!

Today is Easter. To Christian religions (including Protestant, which I am), this is the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead after being buried for three days. 

My family has a lot of Easter traditions, from dying Easter Eggs to still having Easter Baskets and Egg Hunts every year, to having a special Easter Ham for dinner (that's "lunch" to you yanks).

One thing we always do, though, is go to the Sunrise Service at our church, where we hear the Easter Story, and hopefully come away with something that we didn't have going in. This is also one of two days out of the year that the church is going to be packed (which is why we go to the Sunrise Service). The other day is the Christmas service (or maybe Christmas Eve service). So many people are convinced that just going twice a year is enough. Although the church really doesn't mean anything, it is a great place for fellowship and growing closer to God, and especially for hearing the Easter Story during the service.

I'm going to share a bit of this Easter Story with you, and I hope you'll be able to make sense of it.

To give a bit of background, Jesus has just been captured and has been taken in front of Pilate (essentially the "judge") to be sentenced. Pilate put his crucifixion up to a vote: the people voted to release the murderer and crucify Jesus.

From the NIV version, Matthew 27:27-43:

"27 Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

The Crucifixion of Jesus 
32 As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. 33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means "the place of the skull"). 34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. 35 When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. 37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is jesus, the king of the jews.

38 Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself ! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!" 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself ! He's the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.' ""

In a short bit after this, one of the villains crucified with him mocked him as well, but the other one asked Jesus for forgiveness, and Jesus told him that he would "Be with Me in Heaven tonight." (That's what I remember, to the best of my knowledge.)
From the NIV version, Mark 15:33-38:

33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? " (which means"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?").

35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, "Listen, he's calling Elijah."

36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down," he said.

37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"

And from here, Jesus is wrapped in linen cloths and taken to be buried in a tomb. He's guarded by soldiers at all times, in case one of his disciples tries to bring Him back from the dead (all the officials thought it was a hoax).

From the NIV version, Luke 24:1-12:

"1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 'The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'" 8 Then they remembered his words.

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened."

After Jesus was hung on the cross, He died and was buried. It was foretold that He would rise again three days later. ("The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.") The Bible even says that the skeptics - those who did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, were scared that He really would rise on the third day (Matthew 27:63-64):

 "63 "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead." "

Jesus sacrificed himself for our sins, so that we would not have to take the blame when we died. 

All we have to do is accept the gift that He has given us - the Gift of Life.

As long as we trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and believe that He is the Son of God and everything in the Bible is true (how can it not be? Nobody's proven it wrong yet), we will be saved, and we will go to Heaven when we die. There's none of that, "But am I really saved?" second-guessing. If you know that God is in your heart, if you prayed and know that He will never leave you nor forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6: "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."), then you will be saved.

I will be one of the first to admit that I do not always follow the path that God has laid out for me. Sometimes I go days without praying, and then something will happen, and I'll be crossing my fingers and using my prayers as a wish, wishing that things would happen.

God is not a wish-list. He's not a magical genie that will grant your wishes. He'll listen to you, He'll speak with you (it may be hard to hear him over that iPod, though!), and He'll guide you. All you have to do is listen. 

I'm not good with listening. I'm not good with waiting. I want things now. But I've got to learn how to be patient.

I wish you all a very blessed Easter. Remember that Easter's not just about Easter Eggs (dying, hiding, or finding them), the new clothes, the fancy dinner (the first since Christmas, for most people), or the Easter baskets (although that's becoming a bigger monopoly every year, like a second-Christmas). Easter is when God's Only Son arose from the grave, so that we may spend Eternity with Him in Heaven. When we do the Easter Eggstravaganza event at my church, one of the songs the puppets do is "The Bunny Song," where one puppet, Belmont the Bear, sings about Easter:

I'm a bunny,
And it's not funny
how people think Easter's just a time for huntin' eggs.

I'm a bunny,
so listen, sonny:
Easter is all about J-E-S-U-S!

I don't want to tell you how to live your life, but this is something I feel strongly about. (I'm not as strong in my faith as I want to be yet, though; there are all these arguments on SparkLife that I'm scared to get involved in because I think people will see that I don't know the Bible as well as I "ought" to.) If I can use this blog to turn even one person to God, I will consider my life accomplished.

Thank you so much for reading. Do you have any questions you'd like to ask me? Anything you'd like to comment on? I'll admit that I won't have the answers to EVERY question you may ask, but I will try my hardest to answer anything that you put before me. If I don't know the answer, I'll find it out for you. 

Coms 435, Part One: Angelina Grimké

While I'm procrastinating on a presentation for my English 300 class, I thought I'd take this time to talk about a short little mini-series that I'm going to be presenting for the next few days.

I've had to write several papers for my COMS 435 class - papers that I freaked over at the beginning of the semester. My room mate had to talk me through what was nearly a breakdown, y'all! That's how stressed I was about this class! Thankfully, the teacher is absolutely awesome (I gave her a glowing evaluation) and she's extremely helpful. Now, the papers that I've had to write for this class cover an extensive amount of history, so I thought I'd go ahead and share them with you. Some of these are very informative, and I've learned a whoooole lot while writing them. So if you see anything tagged "COMS 435" or see the COMS 435 in the heading, you know that you're going to be reading an academic paper. (I hope they don't bore you too much - I really think they're interesting!)

Of course, all the papers are going to have to be split into an after-the-jump way on my blog so the posts don't look ridiculously long. 

The first paper I'm going to be sharing with you is a historiographical essay on the abolitionist and women's rights activist, Angelina Grimké. (I think I've mentioned her before.) I hope y'all have fun! (As a side note, I got a 46/50 on this paper! She really liked it, especially considering that it was the first time I'd ever used APA style and whatnot!)

See ya after the jump!

Magnets & Paintings

 Yesterday was a brilliant day, at least before I had my mental breakdown. (See the blog post I made late last night for that story.) You see, my roommate and I are intending on staying together as roomies next year, and we've been working on gathering stuff  for our room. Yesterday, we went out to the shopping center in Alabaster to go to Books-a-Million to obtain magnets. Our fridge has been sadly blank all semester, and now that we know we're going to stay together, we've decided to start our major redecorating by slapping magnets on our fridge.

Books-a-Million has a brilliant selection of magnets, and that's where we're planning on getting the rest of them. To the left, you can see the magnets that I picked out. (My roomie got a Pride & Prejudice one, a Star Trek one, and a SHIELD one.) I want to get the rest of the bombshell series (you can see it here) in magnet-form, but I dunno if they're going to do them. It's weird for them to have Poison Ivy but not Harley Quinn.

 Last night, though, my dorm had our first Pin Night since the Snowpocalypse in January (did I ever post a picture of my painted mason jar? I put a Hylian shield on it!). We did silhouette paintings of Disney characters. My first one I did is to the right - I found a neat picture of Elsa from Frozen. It was difficult to cut out, and I had to do a bit of touch-ups with white paint afterwards.

Then I decided I really wanted to do a red painting. I don't know why; I just felt like I needed something red on my wall. So I found a silhouette of Belle (from Beauty and the Beast, my second-favorite Disney movie, after Robin Hood and before Frozen). She has a bit easier to cut out, and I didn't have nearly as many touch-ups as I had with Elsa. I also had more tape, so that probably helped a lot with that whole thing.

I'm really going to miss having girl nights this summer. The entire fourth floor gets together for these pin nights (we did one every other week last semester), and we watch Disney movies. This week's movie was Pocahontas. Not one of my favorites, but cool nonetheless. I left before they watched Frozen, because I had that presentation to work on and I didn't want to wait for another hour and a half to start on that. (I didn't get much done last night, by the way. I got maybe two points done after my breakdown, nothing more.)

I may have to go out and get myself some canvases and make some more silhouette paintings. I know that my cousin Lila would love one with Elsa and Anna on it, or maybe just Elsa. She's a big fan of "Let It Go," and can almost sing the whole thing. Maybe I can make one for each of my cousins for Christmas or something. The paint seems pretty simple to get, and I could just find a cheap frame or something so that they all looked alike. May have to do some research and figure out which Disney princess they like best. 

And I may have to do a Joker one for my boyfriend. That would make his day. (He would have done a craft last night with us, because he did get there after his night class was over, but he didn't see any pictures he wanted. Which is understandable, because they all had to do with Disney princesses.)

Have a great afternoon, y'all! I'm going to get back to my class now.