Accomplishment

So here's what I have to say about class: I thought I would love taking the classes that are "easy A's." Ya' know, the time fillers. But it turns out I hate that. I want to be accomplishing something in class, not just wasting time when I could potentially be accomplishing something else! So this morning I skipped my first two classes-- golf and ceramics-- to spend some time doing things I deem more necessary. And I loved every second of it. This blog is the last thing on my to-do list and I finished all of it before I even would've been out of golf. (That ends at 2:15pm.) So this is a lesson for myself for next semester-- register for classes you care about and that you can feel accomplished after having taken. Afterall, next semester is my last as an undergraduate student, and I want to make it worth while! :)

Alaska

I wish to travel to Alaska. To feel the chill in the air. To see the Moose that is sure to try and run in front of my vehicle, as deer do in good ol' Michigan. To look for a bear, but not get to close. To hike a mountain. To go down to the spit. To be in a wonderland of the new and exciting. To look normal when openly carrying a gun.

I want to travel and to see all of the things I've read about for years but never got to see. I want to go every place that Johnny Cash mentions in I've Been Everywhere, and then see more. I need to create a bucket list and do all of it before I'm too old or too sick to care. People say life is what you make it, and it's time that I make mine a bit more interesting.

Being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up is...

I realized something today. Half of the reason I want to go to grad school is so that I can teach communication. I know if I get an assitantship they'll want me to teach that since it's what I have a degree in, and I really don't mind at all. I'm kind of pumped that I'll get the chance to share something that I'm passionate about with the students at another school. My talk today with Dave Weinandy helped a lot. He said that grad school and an assistantship in it is something I have to do. He's so encouraging and I love that. I need someone who is like that in my life. My parents are only worried about money. My friends tell me to do whatever I want to do. My boyfriend obviously wants me to stay with him, but feigns encouragement. It's nice to have someone sincerely believing what they are telling me.

Finally.

Anyway, homework is waiting to be done. Catch ya' on the flip side.

Peace.

Holy Sore

Memo to those thinking about being crazy like me: If you haven't played softball in two years, remember to stretch a LOT before you go play all day. And stretch after as well. Otherwise you're bound to feel terrible like I do today. Can't even move without looking ridiculous. It's awesome.

Peace.

Weekend to come

This weekend is sure to be a crazy one with a golf outing on Saturday and a softball tournament on Sunday. Right now, back to homework... gotta' get it done!

Happy Hump Day

So in the course of one day I have managed to: throw out a whole bowl of cereal after dumping bad milk into it, barely choke down 5 bites of the anti-hunger oatmeal, have my phone totally die twice, be a half hour late to work, walk around Rivertown Mall one and a half times with nothing to show for it but a sweater that may or may not be accidentally asymetrical, and only eat half of my lunch because of my lateness to work.

It's soooo one of those days.

When I get out of work tonight I have to go to my Uncle's funeral... and after that I'm going out for a beer. I think I will have more than earned it.

Peace.

Dogsitting Journal

I am dogsitting tonight. Two adorable Boston Terriers. One of them is a tiny little gal who snorts like a pig when she breathes too hard. The other is a bigger boy, about the size of a boxer, that just loves to jump around. Both of them are cuddlers, which makes it difficult for me to be typing this (they like to be on my lap and on the keyboard). They are precious little guys.

Dogsitting in this foreign house always makes me extra aware of my surroundings and of myself, however. I am all alone, and I hate it. The house is big and empty and unfamiliar... making it terrifying. Luckily it is in a community on a cul de sac so it's not as scary as it could be. But being alone is also odd because as much as I feel rushed and claustrophobic normally because of all the people and stuff going on in my life, being alone is boring and allows my mind to wander and think about too much sometimes. That is an especially bad thing today since I have no homework to distract me and tomorrow is the funeral for my great uncle. A man I was just starting to know well. A man I loved and cared for. It's going to be hard and I would rather my mind stayed away from that subject, but all alone I have little to deter those thoughts.

So here I sit, (or rather, lie) on a couch in a foreign home with two tiny dogs curled up nearby. Trying to keep my mind off of the bad and hoping the night goes by quickly and without a storm (it's getting awfully gross looking out there). I guess we'll just have to see how this goes.

Peace.

Success!

I have officially written and published my first article for the AQ homepage! It feels so good to have it done. I'm proud of myself, and I'm excited to keep writing. I have two more articles to write still and I cannot wait to get started. Hopefully I will have time to get everything done that I need to before Sunday rolls around (it's my next due date). I feel like I'm very busy all of the time lately, but it's so worth it!!

Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to the grind I call school work.

Peace.

Writing an Article is Hard Work

So here I am, on my first assignment as a writer for the Aquinas Homepage and I am realizing this is not quite so much like riding a bike. I wrote and was Sports Editor for my high school's newspaper. I even got an honorable mention for an editorial from the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association. But writing an article now is like pulling teeth! Maybe it's because I just don't know that much about what I'm writing about, but I feel an insane amount of pressure for this piece. It's my first and I want it to be awesome. Plus, as Rob has said in class, this is something where people will see the work I produce everyday. I don't get to have a bad day or a bad article because everyone who reads it will know. Talk about stressful!

So I'm just doing my best, using a great lead from those we've discussed in class, and running with what I've got! I guess we'll just have to see how it all turns out.

Peace.

Like sand in the hour glass...

I am feeling slightly irritated today and therefore in order to avoid ranting like a lunatic, I will just finish this post with a single sentence:

I may end up with an ulcer before this academic year is complete.

How stupid people can be.

Lately I've been noticing a trend in the stupidity of people around the world. That trend: stupidity is increasing. Need an example? How about the intolerant fools who burned the Qu'ran outside of the mosque in East Lansing. And no, it didn't stop there. Through text messaging and a world that is getting smaller by the second, people in India found out about this hate crime. And how did they go about solving (or rather doing the complete opposite of solving) this issue? They set fire to the only Christian Church around. Yep, that's right, lots of intelligent, well thought out decisions being made lately.

So here's my question: What is so tough about being tolerant?

Honestly, I consider myself a Christian, but I don't attend church. I'm just spiritual and I like to learn as much about all faiths as I can. But even within the giant umbrella that is Christianity, I still find myself being looked down on or judged for not having an "identity" within some church. Well guess what? Not going to happen. The doctrine and dogma of the Church get in the way of my faith and my relationship with God. Is that wrong? No. Is agreeing with a specific denomonation or religion or faith wrong? No. If you walk around this planet and meet a person of every faith you can bet that you will find at least one person that feels that God is telling them that their beliefs are right in some way. So who is right? The athiests? The agnostics? The Christians? The Jews? The Muslims? The Buddhists? Or any other group? Who knows!? And honestly, why does it matter? I have a good friend who is Jewish, another who is a devout Catholic, and still another who is Muslim. Yes, I have more Christian friends than any other faith, but I grew up in the Bible belt, it was hard to avoid.

All I'm saying is that being tolerant is not that difficult. It's just not hating. It's far easier to love and to keep your obnoxious and uneducated opinions to yourself. So let's all start trying a little harder to do so. Please.

Peace.

Oh what a post.

Nature Valley Bars RULE!

I have decided that exercise is important, but there's just not enough time in my day. It seems like I'm either totally exhausted when I get home from work or school or both, or everyone else is (and I hate working out alone). So there I sit, on the couch. BUT I've found a way to remedy this recently. I play the wii. Not only is it fun to play (Wii Fit Plus, specifically), it's also fun to watch, so no one is annoyed that I'm taking over the TV with my exercising.

The inventors of the Wii were geniuses.

Another day, another blog entry

Has anyone else noticed the guy who walks around with a walking stick, no shirt, and war paint? Yea... I wanna' know his name.

Blog Blog Blogger

So I've noticed that the more I blog, the less I have to say. So I'm getting inspired by the actual news this time.

In recent news: The Asian Carp Debate

I really don't see why people are so adamant about keeping the canals open when they are clearly the reason for the Asian Carp moving into the Great Lakes. I mean really. We have found the actual species past that fabulous shock fence thing that they put in, so clearly it's not working. The fish aren't stupid, they know where they need to go for food and they're willing to risk it to get there. So close the canals, at least until we can get rid of a majority of those ugly little creatures. We don't need boats as much anymore, we have trains and airplanes and trucks (oh my!).

And that's how I see it.

Grad School

So first I would like to ponder for a moment about whether or not yesterday was part of the weekend. I hope it was, because I didn't post anything on here. This is one of those situations where it would have been sooooo much easier to ask for permission than forgiveness. It's rare that it doesn't happen the other way around, but it does happen on occasion.

Anywho, the subject of today's blog: Grad School.

Here's my dilemma. I want to go to grad school for something basically unrelated to what I am receiving my undergrad degree in. There are some similarities, but they are pretty different degrees, regardless. Even bigger than the dilemma of trying to go to school for something that I don't have a lot of classroom experience in, is trying to find an institution that will be a good fit for me and my aspirations.

So far I am pretty set on either attending Kent State or Michigan State. Both schools have a sports administration program, but Kent also has a sports and leisure management option. And Kent doesn't require the GRE for those with an undergrad GPA higher than 3.0... something I definitely have and plan to keep. So here's my deal, Kent State is 7 hours (give or take) away from home for me. I've never even gone to summer camp that far away from home, much less just picked up and moved! I mean, it's Ohio, so it's not going to be a huge culture shock or anything, but it still scares me to think about going far away from friends and family and everything I know.

I guess this is something a lot of people go through even thinking about where to get their undergrad degree. I was lucky that Aquinas was a great school with programs I wanted and only 20 minutes from my hometown. Now I have to put my big girl pants on and try to get into a University that's not only nowhere near my hometown, but nowhere near anything familiar. I'm just hoping this is what I'm meant to do and where I'm meant to be!

Peace.

Livin' on the edge.

So did anyone else hear about the goats that wandered out onto a bridge in Montana? Apparently these two gals decided to go for a stroll and froze when they realized they were on the six inch ledge of a railroad bridge over a not so populated road. They were stranded there for two days before anyone could get the poor little things down! Luckily some nice folks driving by spotted the animals and called the local sheriff as well as the humane society, and with a little help from a nearby mining company's cherry picker the goats are now safely at an animal sanctuary where their owners are being sought out.

Crazy story isn't it? It's nice to hear a story about animals being saved from what could've been a terrible fate since there have been so many local stories recently of animal cruelty (especially to dogs). Thank goodness there are still some good people in the world!

Peace.

Rain rain go away, must you fit my mood today?

I am working on a project with Professor Mboko of the management department here at AQ. The project is for homecoming and it centers around alumni who are now living internationally. I thought it would be a cool experience to see where Aquinas alumni are today, but I never thought that I would get such insight from those who have come before me and walked these halls.

I received my second email response from an alum today, and his response to one of my questions was unexpected and made me think. He said that Americans are so lucky to live in a place where the world revolves around the consumer. Business caters to consumers, not the other way around. This particular alum lives in London with his wife right now, and he says that business in Europe is totally different. He basically said that we're spoiled and we don't even realize it, and I think even though we might know that deep down, we often times forget. It's funny to think about how much we take for granted in this country. Let's look at the miners in Chile, for example. If that same thing had happened in the US there would be a huge lawsuit, picketing, non-stop news coverage (live coverage, that is), and President Obama would have made about 12 speeches by now. But in Chile it's different. Yes there is lots of news coverage, but it's not about lawsuits from family members or presidential speeches. This news surrounds how well the miners are doing and their families praying and holding vigils outside of the mine. It's funny to think how different that situation could have been here, and how much worse it would have been made out to be.

I just thought I would share that thought with you. Kind of interesting to think about life outside of the US. Doing this project has really made me want to travel abroad for awhile. Spend time in a place with different cultural norms. I think everyone needs to do that once in their life.

Have a nice day now. Peace.

Keep on a rockin' me babe-ay

Have you ever noticed that the music you listen to either directly reflects or directly affects your current mood? Or maybe I'm the only one who lets music be that important in her life. Either way, that is exactly what music does to me. Take this morning, for example. I climbed into my truck, all ready for a long day of work and school, and the radio was tuned to B93. Now I love B93, don't get me wrong, but this was just not a Martina McBride morning. It was more of a calm music morning. That being said, I turned the channel a few hundred times before finally trying Way FM. Good choice. It had a perfect blend of slower jams and some more upbeat songs to keep me awake before my coffee kicked in.

When I got to work I was in a spiritual mood because of my previous Way FM drive, so Pandora was immediately set to Third Day radio. However, after a couple of hours of the slower stuff making me want to fall asleep, I started singing Steve Miller in my head. Now Pandora is on Steve Miller Band radio, the perfect blend of classic rock styles to get me through lunch time (at least).

Now sitting here listening to Steve and his compadres (Boston, ZZ Top, etc), I feel like I'm back in my yard working on cars with my dad, or at the farm where I work in the summertime. Funny how music can put you in a certain mindset depending on the style, the lyrics, or the tone. It's cool and creepy at the same time. Maybe those crazy screaming parents aren't so wrong about song lyrics affecting child behavior afterall.

Anyway, that's my story for the day. Happy Hump Day!

Ta ta for now.