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!