Friday, December 29, 2006

Blizzard the sequel: The return of the snowflakes

Colorado barely recovered from its last snowstorm. The lines at Denver International Airport were just about back to normal. The roads were almost clear. The mail was back on track...

That was until the second blizzard began moving through yesterday morning.

Technically, I'm not sure this storm should be called a "blizzard" since one of the criteria for a blizzard is steady wind at a certain speed. But, based on snowfall alone, this winter weather has earned its name in my book.

Some places in Colorado accumulated 1-2 inches per hour, and others had a fresh foot by the end of the day yesterday. It's been snowing pretty steadily since yesterday morning and there's no sign of it stopping until mid-day Sunday.

At least we didn't put the shovels away.

They say that once every eight years or so, we get a big storm like this in the metro area. Overwhelming snow totals are not too uncommon in the mountains, but in the suburbs we get excited over a couple of inches with hopes that it might delay school. In almost ten years of living here in Colorado, school was completely cancelled once (or maybe twice).

My brother is still in high school and he's actually thankful that the snow is happening over his break. If more than a certain amount of school days are cancelled due to the snow, they will have to make up those days at the end of the year, and no body wants to be in school over summer vacation.

A lot of my non-Colorado friends are surprised I still love the snow and think I should be sick of it by now. How could I be sick of something that is so pretty? And for the first time in years we had a white Christmas. Last Christmas it was almost 70 degrees and sunny. Which was amazing, but I shouldn't be able to walk outside in jeans and a t-shirt on Christmas Day... that's just not natural.

The snow, obviously, does cause some problems, though. Again, Denver International Airport has cancelled flights leaving travelers stranded in the airport, the Meals on Wheels people cannot make their rounds, Christmas cards have stopped trickling in since the mail trucks cannot go out, and grocery stores were practically looted by people stocking up for food since it is likely nobody will be leaving their house for a good three or four days.

What do you DO when you're stuck inside for so long? Well, hang on a sec.... we're not stuck inside ALL day... we'll be going out for an hour or so so we can shovel our driveway just so we can do it again a couple of hours later. But, other than that, we're sitting around the house.

When you're stuck in the house during a blizzard, I do not recommend watching television. Unless, of course, you want 24/7 coverage on the snow. I just don't understand these people with the news. "Hi! I'm John Doe. Sorry to interrupt your programming, but there is some breaking news... IT'S SNOWING!" We know it's snowing, we know the roads are closed and furthermore, unless there is news that the sun is coming out soon, we don't want to hear about it anymore. It's pathetic because the snow even stops any real news stories. I guess I'm not complaining because I hate hearing story after story about this murder, that kidnapping and new rape suspects, but honestly... do we need to hear that it's snowing all day long?

I do suggest getting some housework done while you're just stuck in the house. Yeah, the whole "I'm going to be completely idle and load up my five-disk DVD player and sit around in my pajamas with a blanket, some popcorn and some cocoa all day," mentality kind of wears off after your third movie. Just to get the blood pumping we've done quite a lot of chores around the house -- some vacuuming, rearranging, you get the picture.

I guess all I can do is make the most of being inside and all of us being together.

Alright, friends...
Until the snow ends...

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Some old faces

Being back in town for one of those widely-observed holiday breaks is great. Not all schools get fall break, and sometimes Thanksgiving is too short to see too many people, so by the time Winter Break rolls around, everybody's really anxious to see each other.

Not only can you make plans with your friends from high school, but you also tend to run into people all over town -- even more so now that everybody's home because since they're also going to go out with friends and there are only a certain amount of places you can really go to hang out, it's more likely that you'll run into them.

Yesterday I was reunited with a friend, Michael, from elementary school who I haven't seen in at least six years. He found me on Facebook and we've been chatting for a few weeks and we set up a meeting place and time so we could hang out. So him, one of our best friends from school, Tyler (who I've remained close with) and I spent an hour and a half walking around the park (and throwing snowballs at each other), and just talked about what we've been up to for the past six years. It's interesting to see how much people change, but in this case, it was interesting to see how much they haven't. Despite the new beard and a few more inches of hair and height, and a newly found faith, our elementary school buddy was exactly the same.

After Michael left, Tyler and I went to the movies (believe it or not, I haven't been to the movies since Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest... there aren't any big theaters in walking distance of Drake). Since this was kind of an impromptu trip, we just had to see whatever was showing at that particular time we arrived at the movies. We ended up seeing The Night at the Museum, which was actually surprisingly better than I had thought. C'mon, Ben Stiller... can he do anything wrong?

On our way out of the movies, we bumped into a friend from high school, Steve who I simply love since he's just one of the nicest, most compassionate people I've ever known. He was out with his family seeing the new Will Smith flick, Pursuit of Happyness.

I've still got three weeks of break left, so I hope to see some more of my Chaparral High School class of 2006 buddies... although, another blizzard is supposed to be coming through today, so we'll have to see.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Baby, It's Cold Outside




Of my little grouping of friends I surround myself with at Drake, my friend from high school and I are the only two who absolutely adore the snow. We're from Colorado and that means it snows for a couple of days, and is usually gone by the next week. Apparently, this is not so in Iowa or Nebraska or Minnesota or Wisconsin (where my friends are from). When it snows, it sticks around for quite a while, so they hate me for loving snow and hate the fact that Colorado snow goes away so quickly.

They may be pleased to hear that Colorado just experienced its first major blizzard since 2003 (which I missed since I was vacationing in New York) therefore our snow will be around for a while. The Denver Metro Area usually doesn't get overwhelming snow totals like the mountains do, but after almost 40 straight hours of blizzard-like conditions, my house received a good two feet of snow with drifts that covered our backyard fence.

Luckily enough, my family and I had nowhere to go during the blizzard and therefore were not one of the thousands of stranded motorists out on the roads that needed to be rescued by the National Guard. My family was safe and sound inside the house, watching the snow accumulate.

A friend of mine was not as lucky.

She's still in Iowa. Denver International Airport had to be shut down because of the blizzard conditions, canceling thousands of flights for holiday travelers, including her flight home. Originally, her flight was scheduled for the morning of Friday, December 22nd, but since her plane couldn't even leave Denver to get to Iowa, there was no chance of her coming back that day. Not only that, but large, state-wide sections of the highways were shut down so driving was not an option, and even if it was it would have been a foolish choice.

Here's another little problem: the dorms close on the 22nd, thus meaning that she had to check into a hotel before figuring out her traveling plans. She is currently staying in downtown Des Moines, and her parents got her a flight home for the 24th. Until then, she doesn't have much to do but watch HBO and get some snacks from the concierge lounge.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

A birthday surprise


Unless you're born in the summer months, chances are high that you'll be spending your birthday at Drake. My birthday is December 16th and in high school it was always at the tail end of finals week. I was excited to go to college because I know, overall, colleges end the semester earlier than most high schools do.

This year, Drake was not one of these colleges. In fact, the semester runs until the 22nd! Anyway, the point is I was a little bummed that I was stuck in Iowa for my 18th birthday and therefore 500 miles away from everybody and anybody I would usually be celebrating with.

The 16th was a Saturday, so it's not like I had class but it was finals week and intensive, 24 hour quiet hours were in effect and I got really depressed really quickly. I had always wished that my eighteenth birthday, of all my birthdays, would be something spectacular and it didn't look like it was going to be.

My roommate had to work and everybody else was in and out all day doing this or that and it kind of made me lonely. Most everybody was done doing what they were doing by 5:30 or so, so we were able to go to eat at Hubbell and then go over to the Drake v. Iowa basketball game (by the way, we killed).

I was walking back to the dorm with one of my friends and I was kind of depressed because my birthday was basically over and nothing of consequence happened. Nobody forgot about my birthday or anything, it was just a boring day.

As I approached my dorm room, I noticed a large orange balloon on my door and didn't think anything of it until I entered the room and saw all of my roommates sitting there with a birthday cake and presents.

I was completely speechless.

It was still hard being away from home for such an occasion, but my friends really made it special and for that I'll always be grateful.

Friday, December 15, 2006

One foot in front of the other

My academic obligation to Drake University for the Fall 2006 semester is just about over. Needless to say the spring that was snuffed out by exams and projects is back in my step, the twinkle is back in my eye and I'm grinning from ear to ear. Wait! Finals week hasn't even officially started yet! Yes, that's true. Monday, December 18th officially starts finals week. I am one of the lucky few that had most of their exams and projects due the week before, thus leaving me with little to worry about for the rest of the semester.

It's easy to become freaked out and overwhelmed about finals. Heck! I've never been through a college finals week before, how am I supposed to know how it works and whether or not to freak out!? I didn't. I had to figure it out on my own. I had to study without being told to do so and I had to manage my time all by myself... I did it, too and let me just say this: IT'S NOT SO HARD.

Here's the trick, the final projects and information about when the exams are and what'll be on them will be given out well before finals week and sure, you may want to spend the next week not even looking at that stuff and it's certainly your prerogative to do so... However, I find that making a daily schedule helps TREMENDOUSLY. I'm one of those people who love "To-Do" lists so much that I'll actually put "make to-do list" on my to-do list just to check it off. If that works for you, great.

Go day-by-day making a schedule of smaller tasks that you want to get accomplished. For example, my average finals-preparation day consisted of actively reading one chapter of psychology, doing its corresponding study guide questions, doing a little bit of research for my psychology lab paper, and working on a paragraph or two on my film paper. Sometimes it was more than that, sometimes it was less. The key is to not let yourself become overwhelmed so quickly. If you keep thinking to yourself "I have a psychology exam to study for, an art project to pull off, a film study and psychology lab paper to write, an FYS presentation to pull together, a portfolio to finish, and a journalism exam to study for," yeah, you're going to freak out a little.

Also, reward yourself for those days when you get everything done. Or, if there's a particularly long or hard chapter to read, allow yourself to watch the Colbert Report after you've finished reading or some other show that you enjoy. Or just chill for a little while listening to music. You get the picture.

If you look at the grand picture, it's too easy to become overwhelmed and overwhelming yourself just wastes your energy that could be better spent focusing in on a small task that can be done today to make your tomorrow a little easier.

Oh, and one more thing: Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth and don't skip meals so you can spend that time studying. Trying to retain information on an empty stomach is just about as effective as wearing a paperclip chain to ward off cold viruses.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Here's a Tip: FIND A HAPPY PLACE

I would consider myself a people person. I had plenty of friends in high school, my yearbook is chock full of signatures, my phonebook had 80 numbers in it easily, and I always had a connection with groups of people in my classes. I hung out with people on weekends and I spent my time chatting online or running up my text-messaging bill. Here's the thing about high school: after that final bell rings, you go home and unless you're in a strange situation, you don't live with these people.

Your social obligation is officially over.

That's not exactly the case here. You're constantly with people -- not just with people -- you're with strangers. You know so little about these people and suddenly, you're living with them and they're bumming food off you and you them and you can't so much as go to dinner without telling five other people to put their pants on and get their shoes tied and help them find their ID so maybe, half an hour later, you can go eat.

Sometimes it's hard. As much as you love the people around you, sometimes you can't handle being around everybody constantly. A simple task like watching a movie becomes an enormous group decision involving voting and majorities. Sometimes it becomes frustrating because maybe the movie you want to watch never gets picked and instead you're watching Love, Actually for the nine hundredth time.

That's why it's crucial to find a happy place.

It's healthy and natural to need some time to yourself when five other people aren't in your room and there aren't four people with computers with all sorts of different music blaring out of the speakers. That's ok. You're not being "anti-social." You shouldn't just go off by yourself every opportunity you get, but whenever you need a break to do some homework, or just send out some e mails to friends without somebody reading over your shoulder, it's really alright.

Drake is the King of all little nooks, crannies, and secret little hiding places. Because I am one of these people who likes to get some peace and quiet to collect my thoughts now and again, might I offer some suggestions?

Olmstead -- Olmstead is the student lounge type of place. It's got a cafeteria in the basement; the radio booth is there, the coffee/smoothie shop, the D-Shoppe, and these amazing red chairs. Ok, Olmstead can be noisy, that's true but it's different when you don't know the people around you and you're just kind of zoning out of what's going on around you and chilling in one of these amazing red chairs. I want to find out who manufactures this heavenly piece of furniture and get one for my house. Also, Olmstead has an upstairs (lovingly dubbed "upper Olmstead"). In Upper Olmstead there are more chairs (not the red ones, though) and little coffee tables and the like. Grab a smoothie and chill out with your iPod a while. Get this... Upper Olmstead has an Upper Olmstead. I believe it's called the Olmstead Mezzanine. It has tall chairs and tall tables and little futon-like things and it's REALLY quiet up there. It's also really cool because if you look out of the windows you can see the main part of campus and if you're in to people watching, you'll enjoy yourself.

The Library -- Wow! The library is three floors of miraculous silence and full of that smell of old books that I love so much. I don't really go the library for the heck of it, but if you're one of those people who need that kind of environment to study for finals and whatnot, this is for you. It's cool because there are random little corners with the bookshelves that have desks and chairs that are lovely. The newspaper room, which is downstairs, has nicer chairs and every newspaper imaginable. I love grabbing the latest copy of the Rocky Mountain News so I can see what's going on back home. But, the best part of the library is easily The Reading Room. The Reading Room is simply gorgeous. It's this huge room with bookshelves all around the walls with these enormous windows that the sunshine just comes pouring in through. Plus, it's probably one of the quietest rooms in the library, and that is saying something. Just be sure to shut your sound off your computer when you're in there, unless you want a roomful of upperclassmen staring at you.

Carpenter Hall -- Sometimes it's a little too cold to make the trek out to the library or Olmstead, but there are cool places right here in Carpenter Hall. There's a recreation room with a pool table, a ping-pong table, and a TV that doesn't really get any use during the day. It's especially nice for those days when your roommate sleeps in and you need to get stuff done, but don't really want to be moving around the room and making a lot of noise. Or it's nice if you want to watch Boy Meets World early in the morning.

Moral of the story: find a happy place where you can just chill and enjoy a few moments to yourself. They're out there; you just need to go find them.
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