Where has the time gone?

There are six weeks left of school! Six of them! How mind-boggling is that!? Soon my freshman year will be history! Wow... I just can't get over that. And you know what the coolest part is? I survived. Not only did I survive, I did really well. My grades are decent, I'm involved on campus, I've been hired to be an RA, my pictures were in the paper, and I went to class almost every day. What more can you ask for?

Maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself. After all, six weeks is, like... a month and a half which basically means 10 more meetings of each class, three more papers, two more commercial assignments, 8 more articles, one GIANT presentation in sociology. That's not to mention my RA training class that is going to meet three more times after today, and all the projects I have to do for it. Oh, yeah... let's not forget all the fun things coming up in APO like activation and formal.

The time has flown, I must admit, but lately more than ever, everything seems to be happening at once. I was pretty lucky before spring break. Everything was pretty spaced out. I rarely, if ever, had two papers or projects due in the same day, or really in the same week. Suddenly it feels like something clicked in someone's head that there's not a lot of time left and we need to cram everything in so it gets done.

Today is probably going to be one of my busiest days -- hence why I'm taking time to write this blog. I have to go to Walgreens to get a posterboard so I can do my project for my RA class which is today. At 2 I'm tie-dying t-shirts with APO, from 3-5:30 I have my RA class and my posterboard is due and at 6 I have to be at the field house for Relay for Life which lasts until 6am.

It's kind of funny because this time last year in high school, I started caring a little less every day about schoolwork. Now, I think I'm making up for that because the busier my schedule gets, the more effort I put into things.

Six weeks never seemed so long -- or so short. I'll blink and it will be over and I will be fine. I will have survived my first year away from home in an academic world that was so unknown to me and now is all too familiar.

Turtles kick frogs' butts!!! At least, in my opinion

Don't get my wrong. Frogs are perfectly adorable. I mean, those big ol' eyes and that sticky tongue are cool, I'll admit it.

But, seriously! Frogs dominate when it comes to commercial goods.

I'm working on the APO pledge scrapbook and our "mascot" is a turtle. So, I was hoping to find some turtle stickers or something. After searching high and low and in between for turtles at two different Hobby Lobbys, Joann Fabrics and a Michael's, my mom and I finally found something.

I don't understand this at all. What is so uncommon about turtles? Actually, I think it's more uncommon to find frogs around than turtles. Well, at least it's more uncommon to find people who have frogs than it is to find people who have a turtle. I can't say that that opinion is completely unbiased since I am one of the proud turtle owners.

But, I can still complain about how frustrating it was to find SOMETHING... ANYTHING that had turtles on it. We looked for fabric, foam cut outs, die cuts, stamps, stickers, punches, paper... and I promise you that all of those things had some version of frogs, but only ONE type of stickers had the turtles.

It was a little entertaining though because my mom and I spent so much time looking for the frickin' turtles, we forgot what we were looking for and kept getting excited when we saw frogs. Admittedly, the mistake is easy to make since both are green with big, cartoonish eyes and stuff. But, we kept getting mixed up and kept calling the turtles frogs and frogs turtles and I think I mistook a rabbit for a giraffe at one point.

It reminded me of the time I actually got my pet turtle. I got him from a friend who didn't want him any more and as the turtle was sitting on her counter, my friend's dad comes over (I bring this up all the time) and he looks into the cage and says "Hello, frog!" My friend looked at her dad, raised her eyebrow and said "Uh, Dad... that's a turtle." I'll probably never forget that. It's one of my favorite stories to tell.

Anyway, back to the story.

My mom and I were wandering around Hobby Lobby and I was feeling particularly defeated. We ended up in a garden section with a whole bunch of statues and figurines for people's lawns and there were shelves upon shelves of frogs. There were frogs wearing overalls, frogs playing the banjo, frogs just sitting on lillypads. There were frogs that were fishing, and frogs that were dancing and the WORST PART OF IT ALL... was that they all looked so freakin' jolly. Every single one of them was smiling at me like they were enjoying my torment. They were mocking me and I wanted to smash all of their silly, froggy faces!

Luckily enough for them and for my credit card bill, I was able to restrain myself. In the meantime, I think I will open a business that specializes in only turtle goods. That'll show 'em.

here's a picture of my frog... er, my turtle.

Spring has sprung!

Well, it's Spring Break and I don't think it could have come at a better time. This semester was going well until the last four days before break. That's when everything decided to happen at once. I had to put together an advertising campaign for Reese's Puffs and give a presentation about it (I'm a terrible public speaker, so I don't know how I did. I liked my idea, though), I had to write a paper about how I read. Think about that for a second. WRITING about READING. I have never had to write an essay like that before and I'm praying I wrote something that fulfilled the requirements. I wrote a reading personal narrative that had a lot of my personal voice in it, but that might not be at all what the professor was looking for. I don't really know; it was a very open paper and that really scared me. Plus, the professor reminds me so much of my AP Lit professor from high school (who I adored) and I think I care more about his opinion of me and my writing because of that. What else did I have to do? Oh! I had to write an article about professors moving into the dorms (not at Drake, keep your pants on). It was a busy week. On top of which, tensions with the roommate and the neighbors were running high. We all get along for the most part, but I think everybody was ready for a little space.

So far Spring Break has been amazing. I love Colorado this time of year (and every other time of year). Last weekend the weather was so beautiful that my family went up to see Red Rocks Amphitheater (a must-see attraction if you're ever in the state). We had never been before and we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather. I took a billion pictures. It's an incredible place. I think I got a little sick from the altitude, though. Red Rocks is only 1,000 feet higher than where I live, but since I had just gotten back into town I think I was feeling it -- how sad. Check out my pictures below... use your imagination to rotate the ones that are sideways. I was having problems rotating them for whatever reason. I'll try again tomorrow.







My mom and I have also been working on making an APO shirt for me. I'm not allowed to wear my Alpha Phi Omega letters until after activation (April 22nd), but I decided that since we had the time and I had a way of getting to a store to get some fabric that we could work on it. There are places that will make letters for you, but we wanted to see how it would turn out if we did it ourselves. We had to figure out how to do it and print off the letters and everything. It's not quite done, but we're in the homestretch and it looks great. Pictures are comin'

Another thing I should be working on over Spring Break is my sociology project -- actually that's what I'm putting off at this precise moment. Basically for my sociology class we have this huge group project assigned where we need to put together a 45-minute presentation and a 40-50-page paper about an assigned topic. In our case we were assigned the topic of race, which we narrowed down to racial identity. My group goes first for our presentations -- which means we go on April 2nd, the second Monday after we get back from break. Everybody is kind of panicked because we had no idea our paper was supposed to be that extensive. We only found out a couple of days before break, which kind of put a damper on things. I don't have pictures of that... and if I did, they would be of me crying and lighting my sociology book on fire. The class isn't bad, I just haven't done a huge research project like this, and it doesn't seem like any of the other members of my group have, either... I'll have to keep you posted on how the presentation goes

I guess I should really start researching stuff, huh? Then maybe I can enjoy the rest of my break!

Traveling... not my strong suit

I don't know if you're familiar with the show The Amazing Race, but it basically entails eleven teams of two racing around the world for a grand prize of one million dollars. It's a pretty sweet show. My dad and I want to make an audition tape once I'm old enough to go on.

But, I don't think I'd be the best racing partner at all. A huge component of the Race is flying and I have the worst luck with flights.

Most recently (yesterday) I was sitting in Des Moines International Airport (hahaha... "International...") for my 11:35 flight to Denver. It was 10 am and I was already at my gate. I was doing some sudoku puzzles and I watched an episode of Seinfeld. Suddenly, I glanced up at the screen and couldn't help but notice that our departure time was changed to 12:10. And then it was changed to 1:30, then to 1, then to 1:30 again. We didn't get to board the plane until 2 o'clock. I was in the airport for FOUR hours.

Our plane had a small mechanical problem in Chicago. It's always Chicago's fault. At least it's always Chicago's fault when I'm waiting for a plane in Des Moines. That's our closest hub and they've always got some messed up weather or some messed up plane.

I wasn't at all surprised that my plane was delayed... why wouldn't it be delayed? It's always delayed when I'm trying to get home, but never when I'm trying to get back to Drake. I get a few hours shaved off my break each time I fly. What's up with that?

When I flew home for fall break, I had to connect in St. Louis. So, I had to take a 25-minute flight southeast just to turn around and go southwest to go to Denver. The flight to St. Louis was delayed 45 minutes. Originally I had about a two hour lay-over once I got there, so I was actually kind of happy that I had less time to kill in Missouri. As it would turn out, my flight home was delayed another 2(ish) hours so I spent almost four hours sitting in the St. Louis airport before I could get home.

My flight home for Christmas break was delayed an hour, I believe.

The only time I remember leaving Des Moines on time, I believe, was my trip home for Thanksgiving.

It never fails. Planes will be delayed. And it's always so agonizing when I'm trying to get home because I'm always so excited to be going home and I can't wait to get there. By the time I should be sitting at home with my family, I'm still in Iowa.

And everybody who is stuck at the gate of the delayed flight always forms some sort of connection, right? I mean, we're all in the same boat -- we're trying to get out of Iowa for whatever reason, and we're all frustrated with the fact that we still can't leave yet. Everybody kind of bands together and for a few excruciating hours those sixty people or so become your best and closest friends. We get a kick out of making fun of the airline people (who I really sympathize with in situations like those) and kill time reading the covers of the magazines at the newsstand. Everybody talks to everybody else about where they're trying to go and why they're trying to go there. And we always put our conversations on hold long enough to call our friends and families with the latest updates. It's kind of nice... misery loves company, eh?

Then there are the people you meet when traveling.... I have one story that stands out. But that's a whole other blog.

May your travels be safe... and may you have a little more luck than me.

Stop complaining!

Lately a lot of people have been complaining about Drake. Maybe I've just started noticing it more or something, but I don't understand why everybody seems to love to pick on Drake so much.

A lot of people are bored on the weekends because they don't have anything to do. There's stuff to do on and off campus, but you just have to be willing to leave your room. Some stuff isn't within walking distance, which is another complaint, but chances are you'll be friends with someone who has a car and then you'll be able to get off campus every now and then. Plus, the more organizations you're involved with, the more opportunity you will get to leave campus to do some pretty fun things. Heck, since I've joined APO I've been off campus almost every weekend. It's awesome.

Let's see... what else do people say? Oh, yeah... how could I forget? Until recently, everybody's been pretty down on our athletics. Don't worry, most people have shut up. Wanna know why? Because the Drake women are the Missouri Valley Conference Champions. Sure, now there's excitement.

Other people like to complain about having to walk "all the way across campus" to get to class. This one bugs me quite a lot. Drake is tiny. When I say tiny I mean tiny. I barely have enough time to pick a song on my iPod by the time I get to class. I have one class in Howard Hall which is on the opposite side of campus and sure, sometimes it's hard to get there when it's freezing and snowing and whatever else... but, it's really not that long of a walk... and there are buildings I cut through along the way.

Oh! And there are the people who complain about their classes. Everybody complains about classes. I do it, too. But, here's the difference... I don't consider dropping my major because I have to take a couple of crappy courses. Seriously.... Even once I have a job doing something that I love to do, there will be SOMETHING that I'm not going to be crazy about doing. You can't just walk around avoiding hard or stupid tasks...

Although, I have to say that the one valid complaint is going to have to be about the food. I've become tolerant and if you like grilled cheese, you'll be in heaven. It's not the best, but I guess it could be worse.

Oh! Is that what empowerment looks like!?

On Tuesday night a new reality show debuted: The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for a New Doll. First of all, I think it's a pointless show because why on earth do they need yet another Pussycat Doll? Honestly, how many of them are there? I think there are six of them. SIX!? Most groups these days cut it off at about five... and the Pussycat Dolls are going for a SEVENTH!? Second of all, I don't even know any of their names. I know there's a darker-haired girl who is usually in the foreground of all the pictures, so she must be the "leader," but seriously... can anybody name them?

But, here's my biggest beef with the Dolls. The creator of the show is all on about how the Pussycat Dolls stand for "female empowerment." Female empowerment. That's interesting because the words "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me," don't really align with the traditional feminism ideals I've been exposed to.

And what about "I'm tellin' you to loosen up my buttons, baby"? They can pretend all they want but a woman complaining about how she just wants to get into bed already because her man's not making his move fast enough doesn't really send their message of empowerment

I should give them a touch of credit, though. They do have one song, "I Don't Need a Man," which promotes the independent role of women, but other than that, the feminist message is lost on me due to the overpowering sexual innuendo.

And what about the way they dress? I feel that objectifies women rather than empowers them. It seems to me like they are using their bodies to get what they want. What kind of message is that to send? Wasn't there and isn't there still this huge group of concerned parents and other adults who felt and feel like Brittney Spears was and is a little risqué for young girls? I would assume the same group has the same objection to the Pussycat Dolls.

I'm not an idiot. I know sex sells. Please, I'm eighteen years old and I schedule my classes around the McSexiest show on television. I've got no problem with their sex-laden songs or their skanky image, but when they start to justify themselves by saying they empower women, that's when I have to draw the line. They're doing nothing of the sort... unless by "empower" they mean using sex appeal to get whatever they want.

A J54 Field Trip

A couple of weeks ago, I was seriously contemplating not going to my JMC54 class. Barack Obama was giving a speech downtown that night and I wanted to go and see if I could possibly redeem myself after taking those terrible pictures in Ames. After some deep thought, I decided that I had better go to class because I enjoy the class and I feel like I learn a lot from it. A little while later I was thinking about ditching the class because I was really feeling miserable (this was that week I had pneumonia). But, I had enough strength to put on a pair of pants, so I went to class.

In the strangest twist of fate, the class took an impromptu field trip to the Barack Obama speech. We were just kicked out of the nest and told to go out there and do our thing.

I was excited and nervous. I had never written anything about an event like that before... I didn't know whom I should interview or what questions I should ask them. There was almost no time to prepare.

But, at the same time, I kind of liked that. I didn't even have time to be nervous about approaching people and asking them questions about Obama and his speech.

There were others in my class who were really nervous and didn't do so well interviewing, but I found that after my first couple of people, it wasn't so hard. Once I introduced myself and told them what I was doing, people were more than willing to talk to me. It was great and I loved getting a taste of what a real reporter gets to do.

If you're expecting pictures, I don't have any. I did get my camera, but I was in such a rush, I didn't realize that my battery was still charging in the outlet in my room. I worked out for the best, though because my camera would have been a major distraction. I was there to focus on his speech, not to take pictures.

That's not to say my eyes didn't wander to the photographers on the catwalks in the Polk County Convention Complex. It was pretty cool.

I got the article I wrote back yesterday and I got an A so that was really exciting since I've never written anything about politics or politicians. I like getting comments back on my articles because the instructor gives really good feedback.

Pneumonia Psucks, but Everything's Better with Mom

Hey, readers!

Sorry it's been so long! I had a small bout of pneumonia and wasn't up for blogging.

About a week ago, I started to have a sore throat and a little cough. I was pretty pissed off, too. I keep my room pretty clean and wipe down all of those germ hot spots pretty regularly, so I didn't really understand how I could be sick.

Well, the sore throat got sore-er and the cough got stronger and I had body aches and chills and night sweats and to make a long story short, I wasn't having a good time with it at all.

I did get pretty lucky, though. I didn't feel really sick until Thursday and I only have one class then. So, the worst part of the pneumonia passed over the weekend. That night was awful. I couldn't sleep and I kept coughing up all of this mucus with blood in it.

I called my parents the next day and they told me to get over to the health center right away. The people at the health center sent me to the hospital to get chest x-rays to assess for pneumonia. The x-rays showed early pneumonia in the base of both my lungs.

The doctor wrote me a prescription for some antibiotics so after I got back from the hospital, I went to Walgreens to get it filled. That was an adventure in of itself. When I started walking to Walgreens, it started hailing and then the hail stopped and turned into freezing rain. When I got there, I handed the pharmacist my prescription and he said that the doctor didn't write the date on it, so he'd have to call it in. As it turns out, everybody at the health center was out to lunch and the pharmacist didn't know when they'd be back. He sent me home and told me to come back in two hours. So, I walked home in the freezing rain and turned around two hours later (by that time it was snowing) and I was finally able to get my antibiotics.

Later that night, I got a call from home. My parents found a flight from Denver to Des Moines, leaving in two hours and they were going to try their best to make sure my mom was on the flight. She felt badly that she wasn't able to take care of me. So, my dad rushed her to the airport but because of one thing or another, she checked in ONE MINUTE late and missed the flight. My mom called me, crying, to tell me that she wouldn't be able to come out that night. I told her that it was ok and I understand how hard they tried and how I appreciated the effort.

They found another flight for Saturday morning and my parents arrived at the airport two hours early, just to be sure my mom could get on the flight. For whatever reason, Denver International Airport was recovering from a power outage and the line to check in wrapped all the way around the terminal. The details are still a little fuzzy, but I do know that my dad had to kind of yell at some people to make sure my mom got on her plane. And she was able to board, but her suitcase didn't make it.

After Mom went through security, she had to take the train to her terminal. Because of the power outage, the escalators weren't working, so she had to run up two flights of stairs. Her gate was at the very end of the terminal, and again because of the power outage, the moving sidewalks weren't working. So she had to run all the way down the hall. She made the plane, but just barely.

When she got to Des Moines, the weather was awful. There was freezing rain and snow and it was nothing I'd ever want to drive in. But, she drove in it to get to me. I cried when I saw her because I was happy that she'd come, but felt terrible about everything she had to go through.

I packed a whole bunch of stuff and we moved into a hotel for the weekend so she could take care of me. I was feeling miserable, but everything seems that much better when Mom's around. Plus, I was kind of scared because I'd never been seriously sick without her or my dad before. She took good care of me and I was so grateful to have her there.

On Monday she took me back to the doctor to get more medicine, which has helped tremendously. She also went to Wal-Mart and bought me armloads of groceries before going to the airport to catch her flight home.

I've been feeling much better lately and I know one thing for sure: I need to come up with an amazing Mothers' Day present!