Midterms

It's that time of year again!

The time when it's all cram, cram, cram for me and every other college student that wants to pass.

My life right now

I have four midterms today.

FOUR.

Four midterms. Back to back to back to back.

It's Constitutional Law and then Business Statistics and then Microeconomics and the International Political Economy. One at 8am, one at 9:30am, one at 11am, and the last one at 12:30am.

I'm pretty close to loony at this point.

So please forgive me.

And excuse me.

CRAM!

MIA

So I've been MIA for a couple of crazy weeks.

And by crazy, I mean insane. Like not a second to spare insane.

Since I got back from Florida I've gone out a few times with friends, gone to the doctor, threw the baby shower, worked a TON, got a new job, worked some more, learned a whole new work environment, did some marketing stuff with CFA, finally started closing as a shift leader, reconnected with an old friend, moved back into my dorm, hung out with my mom, went back to school shopping, hosted a Girl Scout reunion, started school up again, and started working out. So yes, I'm exhausted and that's my excuse for not updating.

So now that I'm back, expect to hear about all that's been happening, because these past two weeks have been insanely full of goodies!

Saying Goodbye To My Dorm

This post has come a lot sooner than I thought it would...

My lease at Kennesaw is finally over.

Talk about bittersweet.

I can't wait to a cheaper dorm, because $580 a month for my teeny tiny dorm room with no kitchen is absurd. I'm moving to a $555 dorm that has a stove, a living room, a washer and dryer. That's $25 cheaper for a lot more things than I have now. Only negative part is that I'm going to have 3 roommates this go around instead of just 1. Hopefully we'll all get along *fingers crossed*

Even though I'm sort of looking forward to changing scenes, this room has been my home for the past year, and I hate moving around. I think I just finally truly settled in the place, and now it's time to pack up and move on again. I just barely finished decorating the place, and here we go again.

So you guys got to see what my dorm looked like while packing up, but here's what my dorm looked like before moving time came around:

My poster from my Life Teen 'graduation' that the class of 2013 made for us, surrounded by two beautiful butterfly portraits that I bought this year:

My butterfly boards that I got from Wal-Mart hanging over my closet:

This is by the door to my room. The cross that Luis gave me for my 15th birthday (we weren't even dating yet!) and a key hanger that I bought this past year:

The shoe hanger over my door... honestly one of the best things I bought all year. Along with a cute little "I <3 Me" pillow door decor thing that I've had forever:

My (somewhat) organized closet:

My awesome coordinating bed. The fact that my comforter and pillows match make me happier than you can imagine. Plus my and Luis's little stuffed animal family in the corner:

My calendar, which is pretty much the only decor I haven't taken down yet, because I'm afraid that because it's a stick on, I won't be able to save it until the next dorm:

My lamp, courtesy of Luis, and the super messy makeup and jewelry drawer behind it.

I also have a little frame that hangs over my bed with the "Don't Quit" poem, a Mother Theresa quote plaque, and another cross hanging over my make up/jewelry station that I didn't take pictures of.  (Do you see the butterfly/love/Christian theme of my wall decor??) I worked so hard all year to make this place homey, that now I'm sad that it's so super empty and filled with boxes. I'm going to miss it.

But hopefully my dorm this upcoming school year will feel just as much as 'home' as this one felt, and I'll make friends with my new roommates.

Here's to a great, new home!

Packing Up

I have been packing nonstop like crazy these past two days.

My lease expires this weekend and I hadn't really started yet, so that's always a problem....

So Luis and I have been going crazy on my dorm. I have so much more stuff than I thought I did! Kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, decoration stuff, school stuff, makeup stuff, random stuff that I can't throw away but also don't what to do with it stuff, paper stuff, memory stuff, extra stuff. It's insane!

I started the packing really organized. All the decoration goes inside this box, all the kitchen stuff inside that box, books in this one, clothes in the suitcase, etc etc. But then I realized how much STUFF I have, and changed gears. Now it's, oh this one fits here, that one fits there, I think I can shove this one here.

Plus there's that tedious part about packing and cleaning that goes like this: "I was looking for that!" "What's this?" "I forgot about this!" "Oh, I remember this... Good times!" "Let me read this." and nothing ever gets done because I'm too busy reminiscing or reading.

I brought a crazy amount of boxes home from Chick-fil-A, hoping and praying that they'd be enough to put everything up with. I did forget that I have 3 suitcases, 2 laundry baskets, and tons of those big Ikea-like bags that I could also put stuff in. Plenty of storage space, thank goodness.

I'm here emptying everything out. I took everything out of all the drawers and out of all the cabinets and all storage space in my room, but the thing that makes me feel like I'm moving the most is my empty closet. I've been sleeping on a mattress without and linens other than a pillow and a quilt, and it's my empty closet that gets to me.

Go figure.

All my clothes are so neatly folded into my suitcases (read: my bulging, overfilled suitcases), unpacking them is going to be a pain and a half.

Everything is starting to look so empty.. Things are going inside boxes, boxes are going inside Luis's car. It's kind of emotional, thinking about leaving this place that's been my home for almost a year now.

Anyways, Luis and I are finding ways to enjoy ourselves while packing... Especially since the dorms give us these awesome bins to roll our stuff (and ourselves) around in!

I was slightly reminiscent of the Taylor Swift "22" music video, and I bet I was having just as much fun as she was shooting it.

Plus, on a quirky aside, we lucked out and got bin 116, which, for you non-Lecrae lovers out there, is pretty much Lecrae's anthem. Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed! I went to his concert last year and we chanted one one six at the top of our lungs, because we're not ashamed of the Gospel!

But now we're wrapping up and it's time to say goodbye to my dorm...

Bye bye...

Tornado Warning

Yesterday was only kind of insane.

And by kind of insane, I mean absolutely out of this world crazy.

And I was at work when the apocalypse started. Talk about luck.

One minute the sky was bright and blue and beautiful. I stepped into the back to grab I don't know what, and when I come back up front, the end of the world had started. Winds at 70 miles an hour had the trees outside leaning horizontally and there was so much rain that I could barely see past an arm's length outside. Plus, the sky went from bright blue to pitch black.

Our dining room became packed. People piled on in complaining about not being able to keep their cars going in a straight line because of the wind. They walked in soaked from head to toe, looking like they had just left the pool, just from the short walk from their cars to the door. It was crazy.

We closed down the drive thru because the rain was pouring in straight through the window and our speaker box wasn't working. So of course, on the one day I wasn't working drive thru, the drive thru people get to go chill in the back. The other girl on front counter was closing that night, so she decided to get ahead in her cleaning projects for the day. I was holding down the fort by myself. And I was supposed to get off at 8. My life.

It wasn't just us either. Last night it was showing that 162,000 people in Georgia have no power, but 240,000 were powerless in Virginia and 91,000 in North Carolina. An article published at noon today is attributing the cause of death of at least four people to be due to the thunderstorms and tornadoes yesterday. Regardless, I'm thankful that we were luckier than those in Oklahoma, and my prayers go out not only to those affected by these most recent storms on the east coast, but all the people affected by storms this year, especially in Oklahoma.

I spent pretty much the entirety of the tornado running up and down grabbing people who didn't want to order water and little kids balloons to make them stop crying. I also made at least 50 ice creams and shakes. Plus the lights went out and the registers and machines were working on the generators. It was crazy. Finally the rain started dying down and the sky turned red. Not the kind of pretty reddish yellow color it is when the sun is setting/rising, but the kind of orange red color that movies show the atmospheres of other planets to be like. It was really eerie, especially at 9 at night.

The drive home was pretty scary. There were fallen leaves and branches all over the place, even on the highway. And none of the stoplights by my job or by the dorms were working. I almost went to Luis's house, but didn't want to make the almost 30 mile drive in that weather. On campus the bikes at the bike racks were all over the place, and there were even a few poles knocked down. The worst part of it all was that the lights had gone out and all entries into the dorms are card operated. Without electricity, the cards didn't work.

I had to circle the building looking for a door that was open, and eventually someone inside let me in. I eventually made it inside my room, which was pitch black. I was not a happy camper. My laptop was already dead from me spending the morning using it and my phone was already at 30%. I decided to just lie down in bed and read my Kindle until I fell asleep, and I planned with Luis to meet him at Ihop the next morning at 9.

There were still no lights at Kennesaw this morning, and apparently the whole KSU server is down so people taking summer classes can't log in to the online database and I couldn't pay my rent. Talk about tough luck.

Hopefully when I get home tonight the lights will be back on, because I have to be at work at 8 tomorrow morning and I'm going to need to charge my phone to wake up in time for that after closing tonight.

Course Registration! Signing Up For College Classes

So I successfully finished my essay this morning, and it's pretty rocking if I do say so myself! And I learned a lot too. By the end of college I will know SO MUCH about all these random things, like China-Taiwan relations and the rise of the evangelical movement in Latin America and drones and whatnot. I guess that's kind of the point of college huh? Know as much as you can about your major.

Anyways, I finally finished signing up for my classes for the fall and I am SUPER excited! (My nerd side is showing through). Check this out!

All my classes are required for my degree(s) this upcoming semester! Which is great, because I had two completely unnecessary courses last semester and another three this semester (although two of them count as electives for me). And, for the most part, I'm in my upper level major courses already (:

I'm taking one more political science intro course online over the summer, and then I have one more intro level course for my International Relations degree. I'm just starting on the International Business degree, so that's what both Econs and the Accounting classes are for. I already took two classes for the Business degree, and after these three, I'm only missing two more before I'm officially in the Business College and out of intro level courses. I still have 1 semester left of my first year of college (summer semester) and I'm already almost done with all my intro level courses AND I'll be a Junior in the fall. Yes, I am a nerd and proud of it!

I haven't started on my minors yet though. So it's exciting that I FINALLY got the stupid override for my French class, because I was definitely not about to do 1001, 1002, and 2001 again. I did all the way through French 5 in high school, and redoing all those courses was not in the plans for me. I did take a step back though. Technically French 2002 is the equivalent to French 4, but in the fall it'll be two and a half years since I've taken any French, so I'm back tracking a little for the refresher. Not to mention that I got a B in French 4 and French 5, so I obviously didn't master the courses. It'll be a good refresher and I need the credits anyways. I'm already skipping 2001 and that's a required course for my minor, so I'll have to do an extra 4000 level course to make up for it, no big deal. I'd rather get some more advanced French anyways, instead of going back to passe compose et le imparfait.

So yes, I am super duper oober excited for fall semester because all the courses are going to be on things that I want to learn about my major (I only have like 3 or 4 gen ed classes left! :D). Although the Business Statistics class is kinda scary. Not because I'm bad at math, but because I actually have to super focus in class AND keep up with the homework. And I'm sure the accounting class will have math in it too. So that'll be fun. But French will be my slack class, and microeconomics probably will be too, since I've already taken Global Economics and Macroeconomics. So two slack classes will be nice, but I'm super nervous about having THREE TBA teachers... I rely on rate my professor A LOT, so I'm taking a huge gamble with these teachers. Oh well.

But before then... Summer 2013!!!

College Problems

College. Ugh. It's a love-hate relationship.

First off, I LOVE going to school and learning. It's great. There is all this endless knowledge in the world that I want and need to fit into my tiny little head.
The unfortunate part(s) is the lack of sleep and social interaction prevalent in my life, and homework. That's the hate part of the relationship. And the real reason I don't like homework is because of the first reason, because otherwise, I would love to sit at home all day with my books and read my homework assignments (only now that I'm in all Political Science classes and all we have to do is read, I'm not so sure I'd be saying the same thing if I had a math class this semester and had homework that involved an entire sheet of paper for one calculus problem..).

Then there's work. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my job and what I do. I've had six different jobs and I can tell you hands-down, Chick-fil-A is my favorite place to work. That's probably what makes this crazy schedules life of mine so bearable, the fact that I actually do like school and my job.

Point is, I'm an idiot. And because I'm an idiot, I signed up for an 8am class this semester, knowing that I don't get home from work until 11 30ish and I never go to sleep until way past the next day into 1 or 2am (as you can tell by last night's blog post).
I need to wake up an hour and a half to two hours before my first class, because that's how long it takes me to roll out of bed, check my e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, and texts (not necessarily in that order), get dressed (usually twice, cause I don't like something with the first outfit), go through my morning beautification/health process which involves my face and lots of soaps and toners and whatnot, apply make up, check Facebook and Twitter again, grab my bag, laptop, and purse, and run out the door, barely making it to class on time.

So of course, after going to sleep at 2am last night, I overslept this morning and I missed my 8am class.... again. For probably the 4th time. Again.

It really is unfortunate because I really like that professor and class and he's really funny. Once I get into class, it's not hard to stay awake at all, but getting to class has been a serious issue for me. I'm used to straight 9 30am classes across the board, and those are even challenging for me to get to on time.

It's a shame, but the class has been dropped this morning ): I can't have that nasty participation part of the grade (which is usually my best part, because I talk.. A LOT) bring my grade and GPA down.