Big changes this way come...

So there have been lots of huge things happening in my life lately!

First, Phi Mu got 5th place overall in Homecoming which is amazing!! Number 5 out of 14 isn't too shabby! It was funny though because all of the areas we thought we would do well in are the ones we didn't place in, and the areas we didn't even concentrate on were ones that we got first and second place! Funny how that works out :) I'm so proud of our pairing! And definitely kinda sad that it's all over..

Second, my term as House Manager for Phi Mu is coming to a close...so that my term as President of Chi Chapter can begin!!! I feel so honored to be elected by my sisters for such an important position. I think everything will run smoothly considering I'm able to transfer many of my skills from House Manager to President, but regardless I really want to do well! My term actually starts in January, although our current President and Chapter Adviser are already helping me transition over! :)

Third, my life in terms of planning for my future has been crazy lately. Literally everything I do on a daily basis directly impacts my life for the next 6 years since I plan on going to grad school. Scary huh? Well I sure think so. Consequently I'm not able to be there for Anand as much as he needs me to be, and in order to take care of myself, we're not together. Boyfriends take a lot of work and I regretfully just don't have the time and energy to be able to keep up. We've talked things through, and I'm glad he understands that this is for the better of both of us in our current stages in life. Still such a hard decision but I'm surviving.

Other than those three things... school is going well, my research in one lab is almost finished, my capstone project has been submitted to the important psych people, and I'm still managing to have a little bit of fun in my "spare time"!!! That's all for now. I'll try to keep this more updated :)

Oh this semester...

This semester has been kind of ridiculous, I'm definitely going to be taking some reallllly easy classes next semester so I don't get my butt kicked anymore! School has me running around like crazy, then my research labs on top of that take up what little "day free time" I have while Phi Mu takes up my "night free time" for dance! At least dancing is a great stress reliever for me and I still have fun!!

Speaking of, dancing is going amazing. I love the fraternities we're paired with for Homecoming this year and all of my dancers work really hard to learn the dances and catch up when they've had to miss practice. I've hung out with them a lot too and they're pretty chill! :)

Our new Baby Phis are being have initiation tonight, and I'm so excited! They're all amazing. We are having our pledge family dinner this evening and I'm so excited our family is expanding with such awesome girls! I can't wait for them to be full out sisters! Love them.

It's weird because I have so much going on that I can't think of anything to write about...funny how that works out! I'm done for now...

Craziest Week Ever!!!

So this week has been a lovely mixture of "horrendous and magnificent"!

I am probably way over involved what with taking a biological psych class, a writing intensive class, an honors capstone, a sociological class, being House Manager, Homecoming Dance Director, participating in GAMMA Jam, being a sober monitor, and working in two separate research labs. Yea I know I'm crazy, and most people would advise me to give something up ...but I'm just not a quitter!!!

My "to-do" lists this week have been ginormous, the one I'm working on for this weekend has 19 parts to it! Plus this week I had to write two papers, a research outline, read countless numbers of chapters in my text books, and memorize and get evaluated on a 5 page script. It then makes me laugh when people ask me to do something in my "free-time" ...because I don't have any!! :-/

I have barley had the chance to see Anand this week outside of our class together, and I haven't had the chance to go running, fix my nails, or even soak up some rays. I'm seriously hoping that I have a better week next week! This stress and no way to relieve it is just awful.

On the bright side I have done decently on all of my assignments and on my evaluation :) I also was a sober monitor for our Winery social, and somehow I even managed to still have fun!! Lots of fun!

Today Patrick is coming to watch Mizzou's football game with Anand and I, and that should be a blast! Our tigers have really surprised people so far this year with all of their talent in their younger players. I am wearing my #9 jersey in honor of my FAVORITE, Jeremy Maclin! Anand got me the jersey for valentine's day because since Jeremy was going into the draft it would be my last chance to wear his number! Wasn't that sweet? :)

So I hadn't updated in awhile, but in my "free-time" (haha) I promise I'll keep up with it!! ;)

Time to get some foodage before the big game! M-I-Z... (Z-O-U!!!)

First Day(s) of School

I'm done with the first two days, yay! They were easy but definitely gave me a bit of a wake up call for what the rest of the semester is going to be like. Should be a tough one :-\

I've got a lot of research hours this semester, especially considering I'm in two labs! I enjoy it so far but I just hope I don't mess anything important up! My classes vary greatly in difficulty. I think they will mainly just be large time consumers. One class I thought would be easy surprised me and it's actually going to be my most difficult one! At least another girl who I met today in lab is in it with me so maybe we'll be study buddies. After I finish this blog I'm going to start homework and hopefully keep procrastination at bay from this point on (yea right!).

I am in a Psych class, an honors Psych capstone, a Socio class, and a writing intensive Classical Humanities class PLUS being a Research Assistant!

My goal is to get another 4.0 this semester so I can have two in a row, wish me luck!!!

Anand and I went running last night, I was so proud of him for going with me because I know he hates it. After trying to find the "park just around the corner" for about 30 minutes we finally plugged it into the GPS and got there lol It figures! There weren't any good trails that we could see so we ran laps around an extended soccer practice field. I think when we calculated it out he ran about 2 miles and I ran about 2.5, so that's not bad at all! Soon he'll be passing me up, I just know it! ;) Until that day though I'll have to keep motivating him to keep up with me!!

I got to see Stephanie, my best friend since elementary school, last night! She stopped by Columbia to visit some friends here before going back to...are you ready for this...*Harvard* for the semester. I was so excited she called me, we got to sit and chat and catch up for a few hours which I loved! I got to show her the House (of course) and my room and we just enjoyed filling each other in about our lives. Every time we get together again I can definitely tell why we're still best friends! :) Of course I miss her already but at least I got a good Stephanie dose for now!! It was an awesome surprise!

Well now it's time for me to actually g4t stuff done tonight...boo. I guess I'll start reading out of those books that ended up costing me $400 this semester, ick!

I'll keep you updated!!!!

BID DAY

Oh my goodness, today was absolutely A-MAZ-ING! We worked so hard these last two weeks and it really paid off! The baby phis who joined us today are all gorgeous, super involved, and waaaaay fun. I'm so excited, we took some risks and ALL of it panned out beautifully :)

Not to mention I feel somewhat responsible for 4 girls joining our house today! I feel so honored!

Thanks to Beth for kicking our butts into shape and believing in us, McChes for keeping us working hard, Becca for dealing with all the craziness, Katie O for being so bubbly, Katie consultant for guiding us, Ashley for making a kick-ass dance, Phyllis for everything as usual, the moms (including my own!) for being so helpful with details, all of our day chairs, and of course all of my fabulous sisters for getting their act together and really working hard all week. It was totally worth it girls, sooo totally worth it! :)

I've got a lot of Phi Mu love in my heart right now. Mary, Mary, and Martha would be proud!

Here's to an awesome year!!!!!

Work Week: Day 1

So glad to have all of my sisters back! I love the bonding and the blossoming friendships :)

My daughter, Brittney, is back in town! Yaaaay! And my granddaughter, Amber, lives in the House now too! We have the bestest pledge family ever for sure!

I've finally gotten my portion of our room straightened up and I've even started decorating, pretty neat huh! Everyone loves Christy's flowers on the wall, which of course just so happened to look best in the shape of a quatrefoil ;)

Today was a pretty chill day for Work Week, it's fun showing the newer girls the ropes! I think everything is going to be so much easier this time around, so I plan on having a good time no matter what! Most girls are now checked in to the house, thank goodness, and I got to do my first day of dancing which always brightens my day. Today I was extra motivated after dance and decided to go running on the track. I made it to about a mile and a half after dancing for an hour so that's not so bad! At least I got out there at all! It was weird running on the track and not on trails, I think I've already turned into a distance runner, aaaah! Haha

Anand comes back to Columbia tomorrow and I'm SO excited! I've missed him :) I probably won't get to see him for very long tomorrow because that's when the more intensive stuff starts, but at least I'll try my best! His fishes definitely miss him too. I bet he's gonna have sooo much fun attempting to unpack (especially the things I packed for him Cindy-style lol) but at least he'll be back in town with his "homies." Sweet word.

Anyway, I need to get rest so I can keep being awesome this week, we've gotten off to a really great start!!! I LOVE PHI MU!!!!!

Busy week!!

So this week has been extremely busy and hectic for me!

Sunday, I ran in the five mile race with Mommy and Daddy. We thought the race was at 7:30 so we planned to arrive at 7, but it turned out it was at 7:00 so we got a whole 2 minutes to prepare and get our numbers on, thank goodness we were planning on being early! The run wasn't terrible and I ran it in 49 min and 13 sec which is pretty awesome! I started with a really fast pace but I just couldn't keep it up after 3.25 miles, so then Mommy passed me, but at least she was only 30 sec ahead! I got 68th overall out of 127!

Monday Tuesday and Wednesday flew by. I had so much packing to do and preparing for check-in along with taking care of puppies that I barely remember these days even happening!

Thursday I moved in to the Phi Mu House! Yay! It was great getting to see my friends on Exec and starting to plan the semester! We had several projects we worked on to help welcome the other members so that was fun!! Any down time I had I was getting all my documents together for check-in, story of my life for the past couple days! Friday was basically the same as Thursday.

Saturday was the big day!!! All the rest of the girls moved in and my check-in process worked well so I was excited! It was tedious but hopefully everything will run much smoother in the future :)

I'm already tired of writing so I'm going to be done. I've still got unpacking to do and then I have to run some errands and feed the fishies and stuff! Today was a long day, but at least I survived right??

The week after vacation...

The week after vacation is kind of sad because all of the excitement is exchanged for day-to-day chores and duties. This week was "pack up, prepare for leaving, finish House Manager responsibilities, train for 5 mile race, eat food so it isn't wasted, answer emails galore" week.

When I got back I had lots of emails to catch up on from Phi Mu girls, so I started there because a lot of their questions and requests needed to be answered in a timely manner. I've also been finishing up the parking list and trying to figure out who is moving in on what days, it's been very hectic! I think I have the majority of everything under control now from this past week. Now I just have to prepare for NEXT week! Aaaaaaaah! lol

On Wednesday I was very proud of myself because I ran 5 miles down "Matthew's part of the trail" and I did it all without stopping, at a faster pace, and I wasn't even that tired! I had FUN! I know it's an unusual concept, having fun while running, but I promise it actually happened! For the first time in a awhile my legs were tired instead of just my lungs being tired, and it felt good. :) Hopefully that means I'll do well at the "Flat 5" race this weekend (which is also a 5 mile run) because this is my first race with Mommy and Daddy where I've actually been somewhat in shape! Mommy has gotten a LOT better, and Daddy has a heart rate monitor to keep his pace steady, so it should be a very interesting competition! ;)

As far as packing goes, I had no idea I had so much stuff! I had to pack up my stuff first so that I could get it out of the way and then pack up the rest of Anand's stuff (he's still out of town :( ). Last night I somehow managed to stuff it all into my car, it seriously was like a jigsaw puzzle! I brought all the unfinished food home with me because I couldn't stand seeing it get thrown away after I had to pay for it! I had a Walmart styrofoam cooler thing behind my seat as I was driving home and every bump made it do that "squeaky" sound which was ooooh so much fun on highway 70!

When I got home I was welcomed by two very happy doggies, Sassy and Zazoo. They were both groomed while they were at the kennel for our vacation, and now Zazoo smells nice (for once!) and Sassy has a new haircut. They trimmed away Sassy's "mane" and fluffy fur so now Mommy calls her "softball-head," Christy thinks she looks gorgeous, Daddy makes fun of both opinions, and I think she looks funny but still cute. Her new haircut has given her quite the confidence though! Apparently she and Zazoo were playing tug of war, and Sassy won! Usually Sassy is wimpy and gives up when he growls but now she's acting like a true Alpha dog! Maybe she feels cuter, maybe her hair was holding her back, maybe she has better peripheral vision, or maybe she just feels like shes on an even plane with Zazoo. Either was she is much braver now and is finally standing up for herself!!! I'll still spoil Zazoo of course, so he doesn't feel left out :)

Tonight we have Rama's daughter's Arangetram (an Indian ceremony). Rama works with Mommy and she knows I am dating Anand, so she thought it would be a good experience for us to experience the Arangetram. I'm going to wear a pair of my new sandals and a new long dress, I'm so excited! I just hope we don't do anything that is embarrassing! It should be lots of fun!!!

I'll keep you updated :)

Chicago numero "hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm CUA-TRO!"

The title of this post is actually a family joke that occurred during our trip! There is a song by Pitbull called "Calle Ocho" that has a large spanish section, and as a Spanish minor I like to know all of the spanish parts! I looked it up late at night and was playing the song on YouTube so I could sing along with the Spanish parts, and apparently everyone in our family had the song stuck in their head! As we were trying to go to sleep, Daddy all of the sudden started humming the chorus and the "one two three four uno dos tres cuatro" part over and over and over. The funny part was that he didn't know any words besides cuatro, andhe knew that word had an accent, so he ended up humming "hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm HMM-HM!" with the last part being cuatro. At some point he started losing tack of his "hmm"s so he would simply pick a time that felt right to go "HMM-HM!" and it was ridiculously entertaining!

On the fourth day we went to Shedd Aquarium and to an outlet shopping mall in a Chicago suburb. When we walked into the aquarium the first thing we saw was a giant tank called the Caribbean aquarium! It was my favorite exhibit of all of them! Inside there was a sea turtle by the name of Nickel due to a lodged nickel they found in her throat when she was rescued. Nickel swims funnily with her behind constantly floating upward because her buoyancy was disturbed when she got hit by the propeller of a motor boat. If Shedd hadn't rescued her she never would have survived, but now she lives happily and healthily in the aquarium. She had a wonderful rescue story, plus she was pretty cute too, so she was my favorite!

Christy took lots of artistic pictures of the fishes too! At one point we had a tragedy and somehow all of the pictures for the day got erased, but it was early enough in the day that she was able to go back and take new pictures to restore them all! I was also amazed by the brave preschool teachers who thought bringing 30 four-year-olds to the aquarium was a good idea. I swear there were little mini children running around everywhere! It was a bit annoying since their parents weren't around to keep a closer eye on them, but our family survived at least!

Later in the day we went to the outlet mall which has over 200 stores. Incredible huh? We found out that I look absolutely beautiful in "long dresses" and at one particular store we went to, every single one I tried on fit so well to the point that Mommy told me to stop trying them on or she was going to have to buy the whole store! Hehe. It was fun finding my style! Daddy also went on a search for "gladiator sandals" because we had seen a tooon of girls in Chicago wearing them and we were definitely intrigued! After asking a lady in one of the stores where she got her sandals she directed us to a shoe store that had the cutest ones ever! We got two pairs and I can't wait to show them to everyone :) It was definitely a successful shopping trip, and a great way to end the vacation!

Especially considering our time constraints we had an awesome mini vacay with lots of fun family time! Chicago, you know you'll miss us!!! ;)

Chicago numero tres

Today was Mommy's day so we went to Long Grove and The Second City. Long Grove is a place that's like a little restored village and it has lots of shopping, similar to down town St. Charles, although Long Grove has a lot more quality! The Second City is a comedy place which is a stepping stone to Saturday Night Live with a team of comedians who specialize in improv!

We went to Long Grove in the morning, and the first store we went to was the confectionery. They were making their own special chocolate dipped strawberries (which were AMAZING!) and a lot of their truffles and candies were specialties of their store. When we went in the first time (we had to go back to buy stuff so it wouldn't melt) I was pretty much hypnotized by all of their yummies, especially anything that was chocolate dipped and their truffles! We each had a little sample (I got a strawberry and a truffle :) ) and then we headed to the next store.

The next place we went was called the Mill Pong Shop (I think!) and it was definitely my favorite of all of the stores! They has such unique pieces of art like teacups that almost looked like birds and wire creations that looked like real animals. My favorite however was the jewelry station where there were necklaces and pendants that actually looked like berries, leaves, and vines. Mommy liked a necklace that had a raspberries pendant, and I fell in love with a necklace that had a pea pod pendant with two pearl peas in it :) I thought about that necklace all day long!

There was a really cool antique store that had lots of stuff that reminded me of the things Grandma Maupin has in a display case in her bedroom. Lots of special china, figurines, jewelry, and paintings covered the store! As soon as I walked in I was on a mission to find a quatrefoil plate (my dancers had broken one we had at the house and I still feel guilty that we can't replace it!) so I looked for quatrefoils in every nook and cranny I could find! Unfortunately I found a lot of "almosts" but nothing that was a true Phi Mu quatrefoil...I decided to search for quatrefoils at every store we went to from that point on!

We went to an Irish store next, and we did find lots of quatrefoils! The only problem was that they were Celtic symbol quatrefoils and tended to be surrounded by clovers and whatnot. Although I love an Irish symbol here and there, they just wouldn't fit with the decor of the house!

For dinner we went to a restaurant recommended by one of Mommy's coworkers that we thought was going to be like a 40's diner, along the lines of Steak n Shake. Turns out it ended up being a 40's restaurant (we even had a water server!) and so we might have been a little under dressed in our jeans, but they didn't turn us away! Yay! The skirt steak that Mommy and I shared was delicious, and I was also thankful they split our au gratin potatoes in half, they were very courteous!

At nighttime we went to go see The Second City comedy club. Incidentally, the name of the club came from a nickname for Chicago itself, the first city is New York. The comedians were absolutely hilarious, and it reminded me a lot of "Whose Line" which we all really enjoy watching! Some of their alumnae include Steven Colbert from Comedy Central and Tina Fey who is famous for doing Sarah Palin impressions for Saturday Night Live. The show was a surprising 2 hours long and in it there were many sketches (rehearsed comedy scenes) and even lots of sections where it was completely improvisation! I've always been amazed by people who are creative enough to be that funny on a moment's notice, they must be extremely intelligent people! At one point they did an entire song about an audience member's occupation as a "Hospital Supplies Orderer" and even had set parts they repeated together, like a formula where they just needed words to fill! I was amazed :) I think it takes real talent to be funny without being overly vulgar. At the end of the show one of the comedians said "If you think what we're doing is something you think you could do...stop being so arrogant because this shit is hard! But seriously, we do offer classes to see if you've got what it takes! :)" So so funny, they definitely kept us on our toes!

Overall it was a very fun day!

Chicago numero dos

Today was my day to plan what we were going to do! I had seen a lot of friends' pictures with the infamous "shiny peanut" and I was determined to go see said peanut today! We were on our way to Millennium Park (the home of the shiny peanut) when all of the sudden there were LOTS of bicycles all around us! Turns out there was some sort of international bike race in Grant Park, so we got to see lots of really good bicyclists go fast and in big packs!

On the way to my shiny peanut, Christy and Daddy were taking lots of "artistic photos" of flowers and sculptures. I think there are more photos from today than most people take in an entire week ;)

Finally we found the magnificent Shiny Peanut (Chicago thinks it's called "The Bean"...they are so sadly mistaken!) and we took lots of cool pictures of holding up the peanut, reflections, distortions and all sorts of fun stuff! The Peanut was all I hoped it would be and I loved it!!! After the peanut we continued through the park looking at the theatre and the art institute. Eventually we called a cab and then went to Navy Pier.

Navy Pier was a lot more fun in the summertime than I remember it being in February! There were tons of seafood places and little touristy shops with people EVERYWHERE. We ate lunch at Bubba Gump's which was absolutely delicious, and then Mommy and I continued exploring while Christy and Daddy went back to the hotel to recuperate (Christy's tummy hurt). Mommy and I then went on a skyline boat cruise and got lots of wonderful pictures :) Afterwards we went shopping for little knick knacks which was fun! We then walked all the way back to the park and ultimately to the hotel, getting some great pictures on the way!

For dinner we went to Gino's East pizza place, authentic Chicago pizza! I got to hail the cab driver and he somehow managed to cut across 3 lanes of traffic within 20ft!!! His name was Vlad and he liked techno so he must be European. He got us to the restaurant very quickly! We then got to eat our delicious deep dish pizza and sign the walls, booths, and whatever other free space we could find to prove we were there! Ironically enough as soon as we exited the restaurant a taxi pulled up, and as we were getting in I noticed that the drivers name was Vlad! I was pretty sure it wasn't a coincidence, and sure enough when we tried to tell him where to go he said that actually he knew where to take us because he was the same cab driver as before! I thought this was very cool, and he got an extra good tip!!

I just let Anand know I had to go to bed after finishing this post because we have to wake up early tomorrow to go to Long Grove tomorrow. He then informed me he is getting up at 5:45 (EST) and asked when I had to get up...........7:30 central. I felt like a wimp!! At least he's good natured about it all :) He and his family have a 14 hour drive tomorrow, so they need to start early!

Now, however, I will go to bed and feel lucky to only have to wake up at 7:30 ;)

Chicago numero uno

Yesterday after Mommy got off work and we immediately left for Chicago for our mini family vacation! Since we were driving the integra and not a rental car I was able to drive for awhile (EXCITING!) however then my excitement got curbed when it started monsooning rain and made it very difficult to even see the road I was driving on! We pulled onto a side road and Daddy and I somehow managed to switch spots (me into the back seat and him back into the drivers seat) without getting out of the car! That was quite an accomplishment! Mommy and Daddy said they were proud of me though for driving well and not freaking out when the weather got bad :) We arrived in Chicago at half past midnight and all fell asleep quickly after such a long drive.

Today was "Daddy's Day" to plan what we wanted to do, so we went to the museum of Science and Industry. There were lots of interesting interactive exhibits, and of course I always had fun pressing buttons here and there! I took pictures of all the things I found to be interesting. We also had tickets to the Harry Potter exhibit which is apparently on it's *international* tour right now! How exciting that we got to see it! The exhibit consisted of lots of props from the movies and well as movie clips, little hands on games, and even moving photographs! The attention to detail was incredible!! I really enjoyed getting to see everything, but I definitely was not a "fanatic." I couldn't answer the special trivia questions such as which spells were invented by Snape and what Dumbledore's brother's name was, oh well. At one point an older man bumped into me and started apologizing profusely and added "Now I have to be extra nice or you might use a spell or a potion on me! Haha!" ...Yea I'm definitely not THAT big of a fanatic! ;)

After the museum we came back to the hotel to rest for a bit and then we went to a restaurant with lots of personality called "Dick's Last Resort." On the way to the restaurant we took a real taxi (Daddy even 'hailed' it!) which was a new experience for both me and Christy. The food was pretty tasty and the clientele was pretty "colorful." There was a bachelorette party nearby and we had fun watching them throw things, dance crazy, screech in their "we're cute and tipsy!" voices, and hit on guy who were creeping closer and closer to the party to try to get some attention. Very interesting to say the least! I really enjoyed sitting outside on the balcony because we could see the Chicago river and watched lots of boats and even a couple kayaks go by. It was a gorgeous view!

After we got done at the restaurant we decided to explore the city a bit and walk back to the hotel. Supposedly it was over 2 miles but it definitely didn't seem like it! There were lots of interesting store fronts and there were plenty of people walking around too so that we still felt secure. Christy got to carry Mommy's "coconut head" that her last drink was in at the restaurant, and we did our best to not look TOO touristy although it was still probably easy to tell we were. I thought it was lots of fun to just survey the city, and especially at night the lit up buildings were beautiful.

Tomorrow is Shiny Peanut Day! I can hardly wait!!! Goodnight for now. :)

Mid-Week Visitors :)

This week there was a concert in CoMo that included bands named "Sick Puppies" and "Hurt"! The show headliners might sound a little depressing, but it was anything but! I went to the concert with my friends Clayton and Alex. I had seen each of the bands once before at a Pointfest back in the day, and I especially love Sick Puppies. Last year for Homecoming I had our sorority's dancers dance to a song by Sick Puppies :) It was awesome and we did really well! Even got nominated for best choreography ;) I, however, was not their number 1 fan at the concert...there were some true fanatics there who had tattoos of the band's motto and signs and all sorts of stuff. Wow!

At the concert we saw two of our friends, Pinto was at the head of the line waiting to go in and Darren wasn't very far behind! Darren is one of Matthew's good "rock friends" and so I've known him ever since I went to the Pointfest where I first saw Sick Puppies and Hurt. He wasn't here for the bands' music but rather to take pictures of the bands, he's a bit of a pro photographer nowadays. That meant he got to be right up by the stage the whole time! There were also two girls from my sorority who were at the concert, and since I was front and center in the pit I was able to get them to come up front with me! They were so excited it was ridiculous! :)

Today I pack for Chicago, the family and I are going on a mini-vacay to the Windy City this weekend (plus 2 days). That means besides packing I have a lot of prep work to do for leaving the fishies alone and for making sure I take care of Anand's responsibilities while he's away. I think I'm going to go ahead and start making a list of stuff to do so I can make sure I don't forget anything! 'Til next time!!

Apartment Time

Now I'm back at the apartment because I still have to take care of the fishies and take care of the responsibilities Anand had. Over the weekend I gave the fishies a food tablet that was supposed to release food slowly so that they would be fed in my absence. Even though the tablet was supposed to last 5 days, it was completely gone by the time I came back! I'll have to be very careful when giving them a tablet while I'm in Chicago because I need to make sure they actually stay fed!

Achilles has been much more adventurous lately because the last time he molted one of his claws grew back bigger, and he feels like he can defend himself again against the fishies! Last night as I was trying to go to sleep I saw him attempting to climb the glass walls of the aquarium and even climbing on plants to get higher up. He's a little stinker, and I think the fishies were scared of him because they stayed in the back of the aquarium as much as possible. When I turned off the lights I could hear him walking on the rocks and climbing, making little clicking noises with his claws on the glass. Luckily he hasn't figured out how to climb the colloseum or the heating tube or I worry he'd actually escape with his new bravery!

Yesterday, when I got back, Matthew and I went to go eat lunch at Pickleman's as the beginning of the "get Matthew accustomed to special Columbia food places" mission. We got the usual asiago chicken pizza, and it was delicious as always! I was worried that Matt wouldn't be full off just the pizza, he eats a bit more than I do, but to make up for it I took him to Andy's ice cream and then that filled him up while giving him two special CoMo experiences :) Eventually he needs to go to HuHot (of course), Okii Mamas, Heidelburg, etc! Until he does he won't be a real CoMo kid! I'm sure the guys will have no problem teaching him though!

I finished my book and was VERY pleased with the ending! I found out that apparently there's a "sequel" (it can be read either before or after) that involves the descendants of the characters I just read about! I'm intrigued and may possibly have to add that to my book list! Although I'm glad I finally know everything that happened and how everything worked out, I still am starting to kind of miss the characters. I've never been one to read books multiple times, but with this one I just might! Of course that's also what I said about Twilight...and I haven't done that yet. (Although I did go back and reread my favorite parts ;) )

This week I plan on trying to run/elliptical as consistently as possible so I can keep getting fit. I was a bit discouraged today when the weather was predicted to be thunderstorms all day long though. I hope they forecast wrong, but it looks like I might just have to use the indoor gym thingy at the apartment complex. We'll see, wish me luck!

Anand is officially in Disney World, today he got to see the "Anandapur" section that I found last year! I was so excited to "find Anand in Disney World" since he wouldn't be with our family, so I took tons of pictures and even ate the "Anandapur duck" at the "Anandapur restaurant." (It wasn't very good though, but at least the thought was there!) Anand keeps in touch when he can, and I'm glad he's having a good time! Maybe some of my experiences from last year will help him and his family figure out what they want to do this year!! (Miss you!)

I think if I write anymore my fingers will fall off, so I'll be done for the day...

An Eventful Weekend!

I went back to St. Chuck this weekend, the reasons both happy and sad. The sad part is that Anand had to leave to go spend some time with his family on Saturday, but I guess I can share him every once and awhile. The happy part was that it was Daddy's birthday and we did a lot of fun stuff!

Anand and I arrived in St. Chuck on Friday. To begin Daddy's birthday festivities we went to a drive in movie theatre and saw two movies that were back-to-back: Ice Age 3 and Night at the Museum 2. I was very happy with our movie choices because I hadn't seen either one! The other movie combo option was HP6 and Terminator, and us kids had already seen HP and we weren't too excited about Terminator, so it worked out really well! From where we were parked we could actually see both screens, and I know Mommy peeked at HP at least once! Haha! Daddy really enjoyed the drive-in because he was able to reminisce about his own childhood trips to the drive-in theatres, and he said even the way people got snacks was basically like he remembered! I thought it was pretty cool that the sound from the movie came in through a specific radio frequency, and it was especially entertaining being in Anand's car because of his fancy sound system! I think Christy chose to stay with Anand and I for the special sound! Overall it was pretty awesome!!

On Saturday afternoon, we all got to go to a Mongolian grill restaurant called HuHot. It's one of my absolute favorite CoMo restaurants because of it's delicious, not too expensive (especially when you eat at the end of lunchtime so you can get lunch prices :) ), it's buffet style which fills up us starving college kids, and you can put together any combo you want! I was really excited that Anand and I got to show my family the ropes so they could enjoy it too. They didn't go back to the buffet as many times and me and Anand did, but that's ok they'll learn!

After dropping off Anand at the airport, we went to a NASCAR race in honor of Daddy's birthday. On the way to the track Christy and I were given new nicknames by some drunken "racefans." Apparently since I was wearing a brown shirt my new name was "Brownie" and since Christy has...well straight legs...her name was "Straight Legs"! I guess it's better than crooked legs though! Christy and I gave each other a hard time and had a good chuckle laughing at the silly people around us.

For the race itself we each picked a driver/car # that was "our driver" and we cheered on that car in hopes that it would win! Something that caught me off guard is that for this particular NASCAR series the drivers run with different numbers than the bigger NASCAR events. For the longest time I was really disappointed in my driver, who I thought was #99 since that's his usual number, because he stayed in the middle of the pack and let tons of people pass him constantly!Eventually I found out that he was actually car #60 and he was in 3rd place, which made me much much happier!! I cheered for Carl Edwards #60 (who incidentally is from CoMo), Daddy cheered for Kevin Harvick #33 (this is also Patrick's favorite driver), Mommy cheered for #32 (the same person as last time when she won!), and Christy cheered for #38 (he apparently was a rookie and did really well!). Ultimately the "bad guy" (Kyle Busch #18) won, Mommy got 2nd, I got 3rd, and Christy and Daddy has car problems and finished slower. Minus the bad guy winning, we had a great time!

On Sunday, Mommy convinced me to stay in town longer to go running with her and Daddy, and in exchange I got new running shoes! YAAAAY! We went to Fleet Feet to get shoes for me and presents for Daddy, then later Daddy opened presents and had pie, and then we ate dinner and went running! I was very proud of myself because the first time I ran with Mommy around the lake I had to walk 3 times to catch my breath, but this time I ran the whole thing AND went down to the bridge and back. I was very proud! Daddy was behind me most of the time and passed me once just for fun! I kept up with Mommy for a bit, but then I slowed down and the distance between us increased a lot! That's ok though because we all had a good time and got the benefit of exercising :)

I went home on Monday morning, and now I'm back at the apartment!

Friends galore!

Monday I got to play sand volley ball with Lydia and friends! I was actually surprised and how skilled a lot of them were, and for once I wasn't awful! :) Afterward, Lydia who is a cooking connoisseur made s'mores brownies at a friend's house. They were going great and then all of the sudden the middle of the brownies wouldn't cook! It was a bit frustrating, but we all entertained ourselves and tried not to "watch the pot boil." It was difficult, but so worth it!

Yesterday, to make up for the brownies Lydia cooked a huge meal of "lovebirds," chicken tetrazini, and chocolate strawberries! I enjoyed it thoroughly, and seeing as she's my pledge mom...MAYBE I can convince her to share her cooking skills and secrets! Matthew arrived in Columbia so he got to come too and meet Lydia and friends. I had a ton of fun!

I had a meeting with our Kitchen Director and House Director today to discuss what we'll be doing for the fall. It was good getting to sit down and plan things, I enjoy being able to offer any help I can! Our membership director named Katie and I got a lot accomplished during the meeting and even figured out how to overcome some obstacles we have with recruitment this year. I hope all the girls are ready to work as hard as Katie has been this summer! If so, we could really recruit a bunch of amazing girls and have a blast while doing it!!

I am about halfway through my book now. I'm very intrigued by the way the author seems to create the story so that my favorite characters have a streak of good luck, and then suddenly something bad happens, but just when I'm about to give up hope they triumph again and keep me on my toes! I never want to stop at the end of a chapter, but sometimes I know I have to so that I don't become a hermit and spend ALL my time with the book!

Our friend Dave's birthday is today so we're going out to dinner and hopefully going to see the Harry Potter movie. I don't remember which book number we're on now, or what happened in the book, but the movie should hopefully bring those memories to life! Christy saw it at the midnight showing last night and thought it was good, I hope she's right!

Anand thinks my blog is funny, he reads over my shoulder when I type and giggles...That's all until tomorrow!

Just a regular Sunday...

So today was a fairly uneventful day, but I still had fun with the small things I got to do! Anand had to work so me, Lydia, and her friend Molly went out to dinner tonight at Olive Garden, which was quite tasty. I'm pretty sure all of us got so stuffed on salad and bread sticks that we all took home more of our meals than we actually ate! That just means I have a good lunch to look forward to tomorrow :)

After dinner we all went to Stephen's Lake park and walked on the path that goes around the lake. It was nice just chatting and catching up about girly stuff. Spending so much time with the boys makes me cherish my girl time even more!!!

Lucky for the boys I made some brownies today (that actually turned out really well! yay!) and so I'm sharing those with them just as a "thanks for not minding me being around" gesture. The last time I made brownies they came out tasting just awful, so I was very excited that these were good brownies! My cooking skills have been tested this summer...apparently they aren't very good. Oh well, I'll learn if I want to later!

Anand and I are thinking about getting what I call an "algae-sucker" fish because the fishies' tank is a bit green. I'd much rather have some fishy help keeping that algae under control than having to clean it out weekly!! We'll see though, perhaps I'll give in afterall. Achilles, our blue crayfish, just molted recently which shows that he's healthy. I'm glad all of the fish are cooperating well together! I really wish I could get a puppy, I miss having a little doggy running around, but I definitely can't have something that takes that much responsibility until I'm able to be a good parent! For now I settle for the fishies.

I've been reading a new book recommended both by Borders and by Oprah called The Pillars of the Earth. It's very exciting for me that I get to do some reading this summer because I tend to be way too busy during the school year to be able to get some book time in. This book is set in the middle ages and has a lot of interesting character development. The author claims this book became so popular solely through word of mouth by his readers, here's my way of recommending it to others! I love it so far but I have to be careful to read it slowly or the excitement I get from reading will be over too quickly! This summer I have read Angels and Demons, The Black Order, and Digital Fortress. All three were rather large novels, but sadly I read them in about two days each! I'm attempting to take my time with this one!!

I got exciting news that Matthew is coming up to stay in the apartment for the remainder of the summer on Tuesday! Can't wait!!!

Tomorrow I plan on trying to research with Christine and then I will be going out to dinner with my fellow dance director for Homecoming, Lizzie! Should definitely be something to look forward to!!!

That's all for today! :)

First blog ever!

I was inspired to start my own blog by Katie and Phyllis after a tough night of dining chair re-upholstering at the House. They make it sound like so much fun! Also, I was inspired by my grandma, she always has great letters she sends to everyone either through snail mail or email (depending on which is the more accessible option for her friends.) I could probably tell you my grandmother's life through her emails, it's quite incredible! Her letters practically become her own blog and I really am amazed by that. Hopefully I can keep track of my own life in the same manner! What I have to say isn't all that significant, but at least it's healthy to write out my ideas!

This summer is both flying by and chugging along at the same time. I was trying to find a decent job for awhile, and as soon as I gave up and stopped applying to jobs (summer is nearly over and recruitment would take a huge chunk of time anyway!) then someone emailed me to set up an interview, go figure! I feel like summer is already gone, but since I don't have a lot to keep me busy each day itself seems to take forever. I really wish I had planned a bit more ahead and started applying in like March or something, but better late than never I suppose. I'll soon know if I'll be employed or not this summer/fall!

I have been keeping somewhat busy by doing small House Manager tasks here and there to get ready for the fall semester and also by doing research with a grad student in the psych department! Researching has been a lot of fun and such a great opportunity. Between my grad student friend and my adviser (who is now back whoohoo!) I actually have somewhat of a grasp on my future! There's so much I need to do still to get ready for everything before I graduate and apply to grad programs, but I'm not going into it blindly anymore! Thanks so much Christine and Miranda!

I pushed back my grad date for now to December 2010 instead of May 2010 so that I can get more experience and have time to really work hard at researching and study properly for the GRE. I'm thankful that I'm no longer graduating in 3 years because that just doesn't seem like enough time to really make all of these big important decisions I have regarding grad school and my future. I'm also super excited because now I get to spend more time with Phi Mu. I was really bummed out that I'd be missing an entire year of my sorority (sounds corny but it's true!) because there's so much more I want to do to get involved and try to help people out! PLUS if I left early that just cuts off another year I'd get to dance which would be horrible to have to give up. I love dancing way too much, so now at least I get to extend my dancing career a bit longer!

I've recently started running to try to stay in shape. I can definitely tell my metabolism is slowing down now, yay adulthood! I run outside on a trail that's nearby and I estimate I run about 4 miles or so each time. It feels so good to know I can run for 45 minutes without having to stop. The actual running part is pretty rough, but the feeling of accomplishment I get after running definitely makes it all worth it. The only downside is that after I run my immune system isn't so strong and I keep getting little colds from my allergies. Hopefully this will go away when the pollen and mold counts aren't so high! Now is one of those periods where I have a cold so I've been using an elliptical inside so I can still stay active but get healthy again too! I was really excited to get to go running with my mom, she has been doing great and really is turning her health around through running. Right now she runs at a faster pace than I do, so now I just gotta catch up to mama! :) I'm so proud.

I probably have a lot more to say, but for now I'm going to end and save all other thoughts for tomorrow. Thanks for reading!