Weekend of Ugh

While the past week's been pretty good, the past few days haven't been as great as I would've wanted them to. So this is just a little bit of a ranty rant so I don't go crazy.

First of all, I'm going to be carless for a week, and it's a bit upsetting, to be honest. I mean, I have places that I would like to go this week. Well, honestly, only one place: stopping by Sally's Beauty Supply in Alabaster to obtain some hair dye. (I was going to try and dye my hair this week. Just the underside. Dark blue.)

So, why am I carless this week? Poor Marcelline got a flat tire, and I didn't discover it until too late, and now my car's been towed and my parents won't be able to get it back until Monday-ish.

Second, I got scheduled to work tomorrow (Sunday) even though I've asked off three times. I sent several emails to my boss telling him that I could not work tomorrow. And not because of the Super Bowl - four of my friends are getting their Eagle Scout awards tomorrow, and I want to be there for their ceremonies. So add that to the list.

Third, my kitty got into a fight and had to go to the vet to get an antibiotic shot. He's still limping, but I think the worst is over. 
[Edit, 19:08]: Sylvester hasn't come in from outside. We heard a cat fight a while ago, and we all went out looking for him. He didn't respond to the food can banging, or any of our calls. We're worried about him, so hopefully he comes home!

Fourth (or maybe three and a half), my aunt's cat Bingo got into some sort of fight or got attacked, and his jaw was shredded. Thankfully, their vet was able to save him and he's back home now, doing fine after surgery. He just can't eat. At least he survived, because if he hadn't, how would she have explained that to her kids? They love Bingo like a sibling; he lets them dress him up and do all sorts of things with him.

Fifth (or fourth?), there's a giant mess of homework stacked in front of me. I suppose it's all my fault, to be honest, because I didn't do any of the homework I had to do last week. Oh, well. Guess I'll learn to be a bit more careful with my snowdays, and not spend all of them watching movies or hanging out with my boyfriend! (Although I doubt I'll ever see this much snow in Alabama ever again...)

Wishing you a much better weekend than mine has been!

2014 Snowpocalypse

Snow in the South.

Those words just don't go very well together, do they? Well, this week they did: in fact, the snow shut down my school for four entire days, stranded my sister at her high school for over 28 hours, and caused thousands of people to be stuck in traffic overnight and well into the next few days.

All because:

1. People from the South don't know how to drive in the snow.
2. The newscasters vastly underestimated the snowfall.
3. Schools didn't have the foresight to shut things down.

A lot of accidents could have been avoided if we'd had proper warning.

But now that I've got the serious ranting out of the way, here's what I did this week:

(I hope this snowfall thing works. Somehow it took a mini-gif of the snow as it was falling. Or it added in the snowfall. Whatever.) This is about an inch and a half of snow on the ground. The car's already covered with it, and people are having fun walking in the snow. I took this so you could see the road: the curb is almost covered with snow. People were going insane.

And here's another shot looking back down towards my dorm and the hill. It's hard to tell how much snow's on the ground in this picture, because it's just all white.

I haven't seen so much snow in the South before. It's pretty amazing, and I've lived in some pretty snow-heavy places! (Alaska, anyone?)

My boyfriend went and made himself a snow angel. He'd never made one before (he's from Mobile, and this was more snow than he'd seen in his entire life combined), and so he wanted to.

He was surprised that the snow was cold, and that it really stuck to his pants and got them wet. Thankfully, he had a trenchcoat on that's a little waterproof.

I really think he had fun in the snow. We threw snowballs and it was just really fun.

Here you can see Matt with some icicles from the school cafeteria's windows, and you can see me in the reflection with my phone (I'm wearing the red trenchcoat). 

He was so very, very excited. And he even had an icicle fight with this random girl we met! She was also breaking icicles off the windows.

We had to take one couples' picture together. I would've preferred us to be standing underneath a light post, looking for Narnia, but none of our friends were around to take our picture.

I think we had an awesome two days of playing around in the snow. Of course, by the third day, a lot of the kids were thinking, "Why can't this just go away now?" Thankfully, temperatures are starting to warm up, so everything's going to be back to normal by next Monday!

Or so we hope. There's a chance of getting some serious snow - again - next Thursday. This is the one time I'm hoping that the weather forecast is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!

Since the Cat Killer (long story) had his reign of terror at Montevallo, the campus cats have gone into hiding. You rarely see them any more. Yesterday, though, I found these kitty pawprints in the shadow of a bush. As I looked harder, in between all the human footprints and dog prints, there are hundreds of little kitty pawprints tiptoeing through the snow. I hope that's a good sign that the cats are still here! At the very least, they still come out at night.

Even with this whole Snowpocalypse thing going on, we still had Pin Night on Wednesday, as usual. We watched Up and painted jars. I decided to paint mine with a Hylian Shield.

The other side of the jar says, "Video Game Fund." 

I'm going to buy some jars, paint, and modpodge and (hopefully) make some more jars for my friends. I think that'd be really cool to do, and really personal. I'm not usually a crafty person, but these pin nights really get me going sometimes.

My boyfriend and his friends taught me how to play Munchkin. It's essentially Dungeons & Dragons on acid, without all the role-playing (or, very little). 

It's really a great card game.

In this set, I won the game. You can enlarge it and see my classes, race, gear, and extra things. I just had a whole lot of fun and it was really amazing.



So, this was a great few days off of school. I only hope that we don't have to make everything up, because we missed four entire days! (I feel bad for my sister, though!!) Maybe tests and quizzes will be pushed around, homework skipped, etc. I'm starting to think I should've done more on my days off instead of just hanging around with Matt and playing in the snow! But since I barely get to see him due to my schedule, this is a good thing. We had our week of fun, now time to get back to the serious stuff. After all, he's got to graduate. And so do I.

College Days: The Return!

I suppose y'all remember my series from last year, entitled College Days, where I talked about different aspects of college life? 

No?

Well, that's okay.

I'm going to be continuing the series (as well as linking back to the original posts) once a week from here on out, until I reach the end of my series! These posts will probably appear on Wednesdays, meaning that tomorrow will be the first entry! (How exciting!)

If you want to go ahead & catch up, here's the original series of posts:

• Introduction & Free Stuff
• Textbooks

As you can see, I didn't get very far on my series before an unexpected interruption (mainly HUNTER NEARLY DYING) happened and threw everything off-track for a few months. Now I think I'm ready to finish out my series.

Disclaimer: I am in no way declaring myself to be an expert on all things college. I'm simply sharing my tips with you. These are things that work for me, and I'm hoping they'll work for you as well!

So, who's with me? Let's get this thing done!

Sophomore Year: First Week, Down!

Okay, okay. So I'm a terrible person who hasn't blogged in about ten days. In my defense, however, I have been busy with work and, most recently, school.

Yep, I've returned to school already. I went back on the sixth. A few of my friends have yet to return to school, because their campus does a mini-semester during Winter Break, and they get like six weeks off of school or something like that.

This second semester is going to be so much harder than my first semester. It's actually really scaring me, to be honest. I'm wondering if I'm going to be able to do this. There is a serious amount of work involved this semester, like almost four times what I did last semester. It's worrying me.

Here's my schedule for this semester:

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (class duration: :50):

9:00 a.m.: Chemistry 100, aka, "Chemistry for Idiots." It's Chemistry for non-majors, to be perfectly honest. It's not the greatest thing I'll ever do, I suppose, but eventually I will finish this class and then I will be DONE with all of my general education classes. And then next semester, I will be able to start on my solely-English classes. 

11:00 a.m.: Spanish 202. This is my final semester of Spanish, and I couldn't be happier. The teacher's a little hard to understand (she is Mexican, after all), but she adds sound effects and gestures when she talks in Spanish so that we can understand her.

Wednesdays only: 1:00: Chem 100 Lab. Once this lab is over with, I'm done for the day (the lab is scheduled from 1:00 - 3:00, but often we get done early).

The rest of the day is free for me to catch up on homework for my Tuesday/Thursday classes. Speaking of which...

Tuesdays & Thursdays (class duration: 1:15):

12:30 p.m.: Coms 435, Historical Rhetoric (it's got a longer name, but I can't remember it at the moment). This was a last-minute addition so that I could get all the credit hours I needed. It looks like it'll be an...interesting...course, but I'm worried that the workload is going to cause me to have a mental breakdown. I'm already stressing out so bad that my skin is breaking out again.

2:00 p.m.: English 300, "Introduction to the Major." This is a requirement for all English majors, so it should be really easy. We're starting off with Jane Eyre. So far, I'm not impressed. 90% of this class consists of people who are dumber than bricks. I'm so not looking forward to this class every day.

3:30 p.m.: English 361, Creative Writing. This is going to be my favorite class of the semester. The textbook is fun and easy to understand, and I also love the fact that we have to keep a writing journal. I was able to score a cool one from the campus bookstore, and it's small enough that I can carry it along with me everywhere.

Yep, you read that right. I'm in class for five solid hours, nearly, from 12:30 - 4:45. It's a pain so far. But I do get to sleep in a bit, and that's helpful. Plus, Mondays and Wednesdays, I have all afternoon free to do things.

But what about after-class?

Mondays:

7:30 (occasionally): concerts/recitals. I attend these to get AIM stamps.
8:30: Anime Club. I love going here because I've met a lot of people.
After: Hanging with Matt, usually.

Tuesdays: 

7:00: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD with my room mate & other Brooke-dwelling friends.

Wednesdays:

Free night!

Thursdays:

7:00: Anime After Dark, at Matt's house. This is so we can watch anime that's *banned* from Anime Club because we can't show it due to the fact that there's a sixteen-year-old who attends the club. Nobody likes her, either.

And of course, Fridays, I go home.

It's going to be a very busy semester, and I'm really going to have to crack down on the studying part this time around, or else I'll probably let my GPA slip. And that would be an absolutely terrible thing to have happen.

Anyway, how's your semester going so far? Met new friends? Hate a class? Love a class? Got something you'd like to share? Talk to me!

2014: A New Beginning

Yesterday (although, technically, two days ago), I talked about the past. Today, I would like to talk about the future.

I'm starting the year off with a job, a boyfriend, and good friends, which is something to be grateful for in and of itself, especially after the year that I had in 2013. I don't have any room to argue about anything, although I would like to still have Jake around.

However, I do have five areas of my life that I would like to work on this year:

1. Standing up for myself (and others). This is a big one, because a lot of the time, I'm just content to stand by and watch people as they go about their lives. I don't speak up about things very often, because I'm shy and I don't like confrontation. I'm going to try and remedy that this year, though: if I'm wronged, then I'll say something about it. If I see someone else who's being harassed, I'll step in. This has happened around me a lot, and I really need to start doing this. 
2. Keeping things organized. At the moment, my room is a certified disaster area. I don't even know how this happens, because I'm barely in my room - I mean, I live 27 miles away during the week, for goodness sakes! I don't know what's going on! Yet somehow, it always gets horrendously messy and takes me hours to clean. This also happens with my desk at my dorm, and my closet, and my bathroom. Basically, this year I'm vowing to be more organized so I can not only find things easier, but also keep my mother off my back.
3. Updating my style. I've looked the same way for the past three years or so. Medium-length hair, t-shirts, and jeans. I'm past due for a style change. I started things off with getting a second piercing the other day (although it's a small start, it's a start, at least!), and I'm hoping to get the underside of my hair dyed dark blue sometime in the upcoming months. I've bought a lot of clothes that are different than what I usually wear (I now own five pairs of skinny jeans and five above-the-knee skirts! What is this?), and I'm looking to incorporate those more into my wardrobe. I also want to learn how to do fun things with my hair because, let's face it, wearing it the same way every day is getting boring.
4. Money. That's it. Just...money. I've got to learn how to better budget things, because I've nearly run out of money twice since I've been working, just not paying attention. I also need to start tithing regularly, something that always slipped my mind in 2013. I have $150 that I'm going to put in the offering plate on Sunday, and then I'm going to start back to $10 - $20 a week (depending on the paycheck). Also, I need to keep up with my money jar this year, because what's the use of a money jar (and a cool bank that you got for Christmas) if you don't use it?
5.  Books - both reading and writing. 2013 was a terrible year for me. I didn't read very much at all, but I did start back in October/November. I got a LOT of books for Christmas (including the entire "Game of Thrones" series) so I have so much waiting for me. I also have a ton of comic books from Matt's collection that I'm working my way through, so I can be all caught up to him and be able to talk to him about more things. I did get a bit more work done on my two novels, but I need to be more organized and focused on finishing them. I at least need to finish the first book, because I don't think I can finish the second without seeing where Drake and Mira go in the first one. I'm going to have to sit down and sketch out an outline sometime, because at the moment, I'm just wandering from plot point to plot point and it's not working out very well.

So there you have it: my five goals to make 2014 a better year than 2013. What are you goals for 2014? Is there anything on my list that you've done before, and you have some advice for me? Talk to me in the comments!

2013: A Year of Endings & Beginnings

Last year (wow - it feels weird saying that) was a year of many endings for me. A lot of these endings were really, really nasty and left me unable to function for several weeks at a time. Thankfully, the majority of the year was spent dealing with beginnings - and how wonderful some of those beginnings turned out to be. (I'm sorry I don't have photos for January or February - I couldn't find any good ones!!)

January: In January, I was starting my second semester of college, with some pretty awful classes. I also became a military girlfriend, as my then-boyfriend took the Oath of Enlistment and became an army bandsman. I was so excited for the rest of my life with him that I stopped paying much attention to others, which really was a dumb idea.

February: I spent my first Valentine's Day as a "taken" person alone in my dorm room, with nary flowers nor chocolates to show that I had a loving boyfriend (and I use that term very loosely here). I also started blogging at the insistence of my then-boyfriend, and discovered how much I loved it. I also scored a job in my hometown, at this arcade. I applied only because Hunter told me to, and somehow I wrangled the job. It was great!

March: I became a sad sack of death in March, mostly due to the fact that I went to visit my army-bound boyfriend for two days and he treated me like a piece of furniture before he shipped out. I still wrote him every day, because I thought he was stressed. I was also inducted into the Alpha Lambda Delta honor society because of the grades I'd achieved as a freshman in college.

April: I spent most of April studying and working as much as possible, to keep my mind off my soldier-in-training (SIT). I also tried to get out more in Montevallo, and I made some new friends right before the year ended. The picture to the right is from a tree in Orr Park. There are a lot of carved trees in Orr Park (I may have to republish this post somewhere down the line), and I went with one of my friends to see all the trees. He couldn't believe I hadn't been there yet!

May: I spent all of May working as much as possible and saving every penny I came across. Unfortunately, it was all for naught, as my SIT became my first ex-boyfriend only one week before I was due to go see him graduate from Basic Training. (I then spent about $200 retail-therapying. That's where these shoes came from.) I also had my wisdom teeth removed this month, and looked like an abuse victim for about two weeks.

June: June was spent working, gaming, reading, writing - anything to keep my mind off my ex. I tried to contact him, to get some sort of explanation, but I just kept making myself sicker. I did go to my grandmother's for a few days and got to sort through this neat box of old books (both schoolbooks and fiction) and take some home with me. I did several puppet shows with my puppet team - Stepp Up (which, as EVERYONE points out, is indeed puppets spelled backwards). I got to be John Lennon in the Beatles song, too!

July: I worked ALL THE TIME. I made bank in July, but I still had breakdowns. I let my ex control my life, even though he was no longer in it. The Fourth of July party at the house of my parents' friends was hard for two reasons: my ex wasn't there like he had been the year before (and I was asked about him several times), and it was the last time I saw Mrs. Carolyn alive. She died at the end of July due to complications after a "routine surgery" she had. (They gave her a bad mix of painkillers. It really tore my dad up.) I also went shooting for the first time, and managed to get two bulls-eyes: one with the .357, and the other with the 9 mil. It was a great day all together. (My sister took out a small sapling with the shotgun.)

August: I worked the first part of August and I spent the second part preparing for my sophomore year of college. I collaborated with my new room mate, bought a fridge, and started counting down the days. Move-in day was a lot less hectic than it was the previous year. I also celebrated my nineteenth birthday.

September: I was bound and determined to forget my ex, but my mind kept coming back to him. I went to all the free events on campus. But on September 13, I woke up to the most heart wrenching phone call - my friend Jake had wrecked his car, killing himself and grievously injuring my best friend (we're close enough to be siblings), Hunter. Bailey and Marina were also injured, Bailey slightly and Marina nearly died (she was in a medical coma for nearly two weeks). I spent most of that day in the trauma unit, waiting for Hunter to wake up. When he did wake up, I was the first non-family member allowed to see him. It was the worst day of my life.

October: My room mate and I worked on our dwarf costumes (we went as Fili and Kili from The Hobbit, based on their movie costumes). They turned out REALLY nice. I got to debut mine first, at an anime club party. And that's the night I was asked out by someone named Matt Lord, who was dressed in a Superman onesie. It was gutsy on his part, so I said "yes." I did bring pepper spray on our first date, because I had only interacted with him in anime club. It turned out to be a needless precaution. My first date went fantastically and Matt and I were boyfriend and girlfriend.

November: I spent most of November playing Pokémon and ignoring Animal Crossing (and my blog). I did two trips with Matt to his comic book store and met a lot of his friends (who all told him: "DON'T MESS THIS UP"). I went as Harley Quinn to Matt's birthday party and gave him his present - a Joker figurine from the New 52 series of DC figures. Matt met my parents the next week. Thanksgiving was at my house and it was pleasant.

December: And then came December. I aced my finals and pulled off all A's for my third semester of college. I did it while having a social life, too, which amazed me. I worked all of Christmas break, but had a fantastic Christmas with my family. Matt came by and we traded presents on December 30th, and we essentially got each other the perfect gifts. I got him a Pandora figurine (from the New 52) and some blind DC mini-figs, as well as a little human-shark hybrid pirate thing. He got me a leatherbound copy of The Hobbit, a "Don't Blink" bracelet, a mini Link plushie, a Justice League magnet, a TARDIS car magnet, some fuzzy socks, some pins for my bookbag, and some Batman earrings. The final day of 2013, I spent shopping with my mother and sister. I also got my ears pierced a second time. Then Sarah & I went to Hunter's house for his nineteenth birthday party, where I, hands-down, got him the best gift ever. It was a great end to a rather ho-hum year.

How was your 2013? Was it just a bad year all-around (like my boss seems to think), or did some of you break the curse of 13? Talk to me below! I'd love to hear about your years!

Come back tomorrow for a look into the future!

The 52-Week Money Challenge

This past year, I took part in something called the Fifty-Two Week Money Challenge. However, I started the challenge a few weeks late, after I got a job at TreeTop. (I didn't have money before then, to be honest. Heehee.)

Anyway, the point of this challenge is to challenge you to save a specific amount of money per week. In the beginning, it seems like an insignificant amount. "One dollar this week? Two dollars the next? This is easy." 

However, as you keep going, the dollar amount increases. Two dollars, ten dollars, forty-seven dollars. It keeps climbing. The last week, you're supposed to put $52 into the jar. (I'll be putting $43 in, because that's how many weeks I'll stop at.)

Where am I keeping of all this money? Not in a mason jar, although next year, I might do that. Now, I've got this little blue jar with butterflies on it, that one of my cats in my cat collection came in.

Do you see the weird multi-colored cat here? It's sort of tucked behind the siamese and the paw-licking kitten.  It's from some famous artist in Germany. I received it as a Christmas present one year. It's interesting, to say the least!

This is my money jar (and my messy dresser). You can see my red money-box (beneath the Milka bar), my coin bank (behind the pen-jar), and my quarter-box (the Fuzzy Wuzzy cat bank), as well. I think my blue money jar's pretty, though!

[insert inner jar picture]

What am I going to do with all this money? I'm going to place it into my Savings Account. It's going to be a rather large cash deposit, and I'm sure the teller's going to look at me like I'm absolutely insane. But hey, if I've worked this hard, I'm not going to do it halfway! (I might keep a few dollars out, depending on how much cash I have in my red box by then. Otherwise, it's all going straight to the bank!)

How am I keeping track of all this money? Simple. I found a pin on Pinterest that I was able to print out and place on my dresser, beneath my money jar. I also put my money in the same day every week - on a Saturday. That way, I'm home from school, and I've also gotten my paycheck cashed. There's no way I can miss a week! (Checking off the amount helps, too.)

This is the tracking sheet. I place a star next to the week when I complete it, then the date next to the dollar amount.  That way I don't get off track.

Why am I doing this? Well, I don't think I really have a reason. I just need to save some money, and this seems to be the easiest way to do so. The later weeks are always going to eat away at my paycheck, but the end result is amazing. While I don't have over $1,300 this year, I do have $946. And for a nineteen-year-old girl, that's an awesome achievement.

Now I have a challenge for you, dear readers.

Will you take the Challenge with me in 2014?

I know it may be asking a lot from some of you, especially as y'all might not have jobs. (I have no idea of your current financial situation, but it's probably not very good, considering you're probably either on a military salary, working a part-time job, working a below-minimum-wage job, are unemployed, attending college, or are still in high school...or maybe a combination of two or more of these things!) Then there's this person's reasoning. (As you can see, I've also commented on here with my own opinion...)

However, think of the reward. At the end of 2014, you'll be able to march up to your bank, place your jar on the counter, and say, "I'd like to deposit this in my savings account." And the teller will smirk at your piggy bank, your red velvet box, your grandmother's jewelry box, or whatever else you're using to hold your money, and they'll say, "Of course." When the jar is opened, their jaw will drop, and you'll be the one smirking in satisfaction at a job well-done. 

Join me. The only reward is the knowledge that you're able to actually save money. (I've always had problems with that...this is helping, BIG-TIME!) Plus, you can jump in at ANY TIME! (I started in March, for example, after getting my first paycheck!) It's easier to keep track of everything if you start at Week One, no matter when you join. Then just start over on January 1.

What have you got to lose?