APO Sectionals

This past weekend Drake hosted the APO Section 21 Conference and it was amazing. A lot of chapters from the rest of the state were invited down to Drake to participate in worshops and lectures and all sorts of things like that. I haven't been in the chapter very long at all so this was my first large APO gathering with other chapters, and I'm tellin' you I'd do it again in a heartbeat

On Friday night, we hosted a fellowship event in one of the academic buildings. We watched a movie on the projector and played charades. In case you're curious, my team won. Go, red team!! We had some pretty interesting drawings and some even more impressive guesses. My RA recently joined APO at Iowa State (she's a grad student there) and she was an amazing guesser... I mean, she guessed "fern." Fern, I tell you. I guess you had to be there.

All day Saturday we had workshops and things we could do with our brothers from other chapters. I spent the entire day at the roundtable discussions because they were REALLY interesting. A bunch of people from a bunch of chapters sat around and talked about how they run their chapter. We talked about everything from the recruiting process to what we do for service events. It's really amazing to see how different each chapter is despite being apart of the same organization. It was also really fun because we were able to bounce ideas off one another and talk about what worked for each of us and what didn't. I thought it was really beneficial - even if all the topics that we discussed didn't apply to me or my position on the Executive Committee.

The day ended with our formal banquet/dance which was great fun and kinda bittersweet ("kinda" is actually a gross understatement). I think it went really well and was a great end to sectionals. Everybody really seemed to enjoy theirselves. Personally, I'm not much of a dancer. I'll do "Shout," "YMCA," "The Electric Slide," "The Macarena," "The Chicken Dance," and things like that, but generally speaking I feel uncomfortably self-concious (isn't that redundant?) and awkward when dancing. Me running around my room in my sweatpants, singing karaoke into my hairbrush when nobody is looking is a different story.... correction... when I THINK nobody is looking.

I took some pictures so check them out. I might be adding more when I steal some from facebook :)



That's my RA. She can bust a move. There's a YouTube video to prove it.



Speaking of busting a move, Ms. Julie was gettin' friendly with Ben, the president of the Iowa State chapter.



Ryan graciously moved the glass away from his face to let me take his picture. He, erm... "hurt his ankle" or something. I'm kidding, he really did hurt his ankle.



Mr. Mike... I suppose you could call him my other half. He is the other Service Vice President.



Julie and Ryan finger dancing. Finger dancing is where it's at, yo!

Blogger doesn't like shoving a billion pictures in a blog, so here are a few more. :)


Me and my girls from Carpenter


Me getting ready in my messy room : / note to self: clean room

My latest addiction

Ok, so if you click on that little picture of a planet on the upper right hand side of my blog, you'll be introduced to one of my latest addctions. It's a tracker. It keeps track of my blog visitors and it's AWESOME.

It's thanks to that little guy that I know that most of the people who happen upon my blog have bulldogs with pink eye or pneumonia. Or they want to know what kind of habitat bulldogs need. Or they need to know how big bulldogs get. Or they want bulldog quotes. Or they want Keith Anderson pictures. That last one is kind of random, I know. Although, those are the people who luck out the most. My blog doesn't offer counsel for those with sick bulldogs, though I hope those surfers find the information they need. Keith Anderson pictures, on the other hand.. well, you've come to the right place.

But it's actually really cool to see because I've had hits from Australia, South Africa, Canada, Argentina, and India. I've even had visitors from all sorts of states like New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado, California, Iowa of course, Florida, Georgia, Illinois (particularly Arlington Heights - hi, Arlington Heights!), North Dakota, South Dakota, and Oregon.

Isn't the Internet amazing? I'm having too much fun tracking my hits. And the site that does it breaks it down in like nine different ways. It's awesome. I love it.

You know what I'm also addicted to? YouTube. That seems like a pretty standard answer, I know. But I'm addicted to particular videos on YouTube. I actually watch them several times a day. They're kind of a pick-me-up. I've decided to share them with you. You'll thank me later.

Actually, it's kind of annoying that I couldn't figure out how to put them all in one blog... so bear with me.

I'll give you a short description of each one..

The first one is only for Back to the Future fans. Seeing the movie a few times doesn't really count. Unless you remember some pretty specific plot points. This guy played Biff and he's a comedian now and this song is pretty much the funniest thing I've ever seen.

The second one is a guy named Greg Patillo and he's pretty much the most amazing flute player I've ever seen in my life. He has some mad skills, yo. I'm writing an article about him for Drake Mag, too. Assuming he ever gets back to me.

The next three are Potter Puppet Pal videos. Whether you love or hate Harry Potter, you'll get a kick out of these videos. They're hilarious. The puppets are really well done, the voices are great, and it's pretty amazing all around. If "snape, Snape, Serverus Snape.." doesn't get stuck in your head, you've got problems. :)

Biff's Question Song (Stand-up Comedy)

beatboxing flute super mario brothers theme

Potter Puppet Pals in Wizard Swears

Potter Puppet Pals in Wizard Angst

Potter Puppet Pals in The Mysterious Ticking Noise

An Apology

I owe someone an apology. A BIG, BIG, BIG apology. Things are much, much better now because I've made a lot of changes, but I still need to own up to my mistakes. Afterall, you can never really forgive someone until they apologize.

Nothing you ever did was good enough for me, and I'm sorry. Looking back on it now, you did some truly amazing things. I mean truly amazing. Not everybody could have done what you did and handled everything the way you handled it. You sought approval and validation from others because you couldn't get it from me. You were trying to fill a void that I created. And that's totally understandable, I just wish it wasnt' there in the first place. I forced others to take pride in you and your accomplishments because all I was able to see was your faults and failures. And that was wrong of me.

I let others tell you who you were supposed to be and made you feel inferior to them. I made you feel like you didn't deserve to be with certain people - to talk to them, to eat with them, to sit with them in the back of the class. And I had no right to do that. I could never see how special you are or all you had to offer. I see those things now and realize what a fool I was. But, part of me was right; you didn't deserve those people. You deserved and still deserve better than them. Much better than them. I let people use you in exchange for their ephemeral friendship. But here's the thing, those two words don't go together. Friendships don't go as quickly as they come. They don't evaporate like smoke on the end of a lit cigarette. They last.

And boys... oh, man. You could never get it right, could you? It didn't help that I told you that you weren't good enough for them. My parents told me to tell you that boys should treat you with respect and think that you are something special, but I never told you that. You learned it, though - in the end. I should have yelled at you and told you that relationships should never have to be forced and that being someone you're not with the intention of winning his affections doesn't work and, more importantly, isn't worth it. I'm sorry you had to learn that the hard way. They warned me, Mom and Dad did, but I never passed along the message. You were blind, and I could have turned on the lights for you, but I didn't. And as a result, you fell in the dark and got hurt.

I was only too good at making you feel guilty for being happy or having fun, which is probably how I've wronged you most recently. You life is bogged down by duties and responsibilities, and not only do you deserve time to leave it all behind, but you NEED that time. You dedicate yourself to other people so regularly that you're nothing short of entitled to an hour or two for yourself. People can live without you, you know. It's good that you get away. People can't always come to you for things; they have to learn how to rely on themselves, too. You work hard and have earned the right to have fun.

As I said, things between us now seem better, but I had to at least apologize. So here's a giant, resounding apology. I'M SORRY. I'm sorry for hurting you, for belitting you and making you feel worthless and incomeptent, for making you take others' opinions of you so serioulsy, for not being there when you needed me the most. I'M SO, SO SORRY. We'll do better in our next 19 years.