Morning Shift

Dear Phone,

Thank you so much for freezing in the middle of your daily update last night. It's a really good thing I didn't actually need that alarm to go off at 6:45 so that I could make it to breakfast before work. I love it when I feel challenged to get ready in eight minutes and I know my supervisors appreciate me being fifteen minutes late.

I also can't wait to try to track down another person who wakes up for breakfast even when they have an afternoon class. It will be another great challenge since I can only think of one off the top of my head. I hope you start being reliable in time for me to send the text message!

Sincerely,
Michelle

P.S.: Though this post may be dripping with sarcasm, I won't let it ruin my day. I know that will get under your plastic casing! MLH

Living the Dream

Remember that sorority I joined in September? Story time! I mentioned in my post "Block 2" that the third student in the class was a quiet girl who referred to herself as an outsider. I pledged to try to change that and was more successful than I could have ever imagined. It turns out that her mom is a Beta Sigma Phi and her dream was to start a chapter on campus. She didn't know how to go about it, though, and was sort of afraid to try by herself, so I promised to help her. Fast forward to November 16, 2011 when I threw a little party for nine young ladies I am about to officially call my sisters.

Don't we all look so happy to be sisters? We spent the rest of the week calling each other "sister" almost exclusively. I wasn't the only one joining because I had dreamed of the traditional collegiate sorority, so I made bid cards for everyone. I even found black, yellow, and white plaid ribbon.

Our party was a luau theme because I was footing the bill for decorations and my apartment already had a light up palm tree sitting in the corner courtesy of my roommate. The chapter in a box packet suggested that we play games to get to know each other, which was exactly what I wanted to do, but their suggestions weren't very college student friendly. One was a version of "Never Have I Ever," which I know from experience can get out of hand quickly and the other was a game of pass-the-sand to build teamwork, which was not about to happen in my living room. The only other game I could think of was "Onion," and that always makes people cry. Finally I came up with "Apples to Apples." That's a pretty safe game that still lets people get a little crazy and has little to no room for tears. See the laughter? I think that is a sign of success.
I thought it was a success, despite my many worries during preparation. Angel helped me with the punch and Nick even made an emergency trip to buy another roll of ribbon for me. I really have the best fiance ever. Overall, it was almost exactly what I would have wanted my bid day to be and I can't wait for our next adventure.

10 Secrets to a Charmed Life

Miles Redd, Matchbook, Feb. 2011

1. Have at least 8 sources of light in a room.

2. Use trays liberally to collect things.

3. Embrace different heights.

4. Something sculptural...can make a dead corner seem exciting.

5. If you don't have time for ironing sheets, just do the pillowcases.

6. A good scented soap makes a wonderful sachet.

7. Eucalyptus Espom Salt...makes a great exfoliating scrub and soothing bath.

8. Eat chia seeds.

9. Screens add dimensions to rooms.

10. Invest in a housekeeper.

http://matchbookmag.com/issues/

I found this magazine online and I am in love with it. Of course it's the kind of magazine that advertises Lilly Pulitzer and Kate Spade (note number ten). I wore my Kate Spade purse until it literally started falling apart. It's the kind of brand I can only afford on ebay. I love looking through the pages, though. It's inspiration for more budget friendly substitutes.

London Pictures!

I finally have a little bit of downtime to upload pictures. Sadly, I only have the downtime because I ran out of ribbon and am waiting for my wonderful fiance to arrive with more. It's downtime nonetheless, so pictures it is. This first one is on the plane to D.C. I wish I had a better picture of the shirts we made. The front says "Team Frederick" and the back says "'You pierce my soul!'" Five of us Austen geeks made them in honor of Persuasion, which we finished reading right before leaving.

The first day in London was rough because we were all suffering from jet lag. We mostly wandered around looking at gorgeous things I barely remember, but they let us take a nap before going to Piccadilly Circus. I was really disappointed with Piccadilly, though, because my first impression of it was a really romantic swing song. In actuality, it's more like London's Times Square. We did get to see the Thames at night and take our touristy London Eye at night pictures, though.

The next day was our first opportunity to try fish & chips before visiting the Tower of London, which was my favorite part of the trip. I only tried chips of course, but still exciting. Anything about that day was made more exciting by the fact that I was going to get to see ravens. The tower ravens mostly live next to the White Tower, which is the palace part of the Tower.

And here's a raven! A REAL LIFE RAVEN! I was just a little excited.

Or a lot. I wanted to touch it so badly, but they bite, so that would have been a dumb move. But it was still really tempting. I did buy a plush raven from the souvenir shop. Its name is Merlin because one of the yeomen told me a story about one of the current Tower ravens named Merlin. They found out too late that Merlin was actually a girl. She hangs out in this courtyard often, so the raven I'm pointing at could very well be her.

The next day was our day tour to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath. The first stop was Stonehenge. Not very exciting, but still my second favorite part of the trip. I've been dreaming about seeing Stonehenge since I was eight. I walked around it, but I didn't listen to the audio guide because it was really chilly, so I missed a couple of things. No regrets, it was freezing!

The next stop was Salisbury. We ate at a little restaurant called The Cloisters and then headed to Salisbury Cathedral. This is a picture of the actual cloisters.

The cathedral houses the world's oldest working clock. It's over seven hundred years old! I took a picture for Nick since he loves all things medieval. Isn't it cool? It's been working almost continuously since it was built. The only exception was a sixty year period around the nineteenth century when they dismantled it and replaced it with a clock that sounded half hours in addition to hours.

The final stop was Bath where we saw...wait for it...the Roman baths. Plot twist, right? They were really gorgeous, but really disgusting. The water was full of algae, pumped through lead pipes, and supposedly a favorite swimming spot for rats and pigeons. We were specifically told not to touch the water, but our group passed one mother encouraging her kids to bend down and play in it. Great parenting, right? I was all the more irritated because I twisted my ankle on one of the cobblestones. I was so glad I brought a wrap!

We also went to go see Westminster Abbey. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so hopefully you watched the royal wedding this past April. It was so cool to stand in between the choir lofts and think "I saw the choir singing here on TV! And that's where they had the altar!" It was even more gorgeous in person, though.

Check out the view we had when leaving the Abbey! Big Ben and the London Eye! And the sky was perfect for a picture. The group that went my sophomore year was so jealous we had sun!

Please ignore all of the time stamps. My camera crudded out my freshman year after our trip to D.C., so I was using Mom's. It didn't like me very much. I'm going to find a way to creatively crop or cover the signature when I scrapbook them.

The Best Surprise

Today has been one of those days, you know? Nothing seems to be working out, and I can't just not care. My mantra right now is "deep breaths." In spite of this, or maybe because of, today held one of the best surprises I've had in a long time. Over the break I ordered my textbooks online, so today I made it to the post office to claim my packages four minutes before they closed. I then hurried off to lunch, had to wait for the sandwich line since there was nothing vegetarian, ate quickly, and power walked to class. Once seated, I began opening my packages so I could reference the books. Not once did it occur to me to check the labels, and this is where the surprise comes in.

I ripped open the smallest envelope containing what I assumed was the shortest of the books. I shook out what could plausibly be a very short book, but imagine my surprise when a pin tumbled out, too. Confused, I turned it over to see my letters shining up at me. What I thought was a fairly sketch version of Austen turned out to be a notepad and a handmade card. There was even a pencil. All of them bore our letters, colors, or both, and all were welcoming me to Beta Sigma Phi.

Aren't they cute? I have the best special sister ever :D I have the best sisters ever. Who else can make someone they've never met in person feel so great on such an off day?

Block 2

"I'll be there on Monday nine o'clock and we will see who walks the walk. No, no, I can't wait! I will be there at eight when they unlock the door."

Today was the first day of class and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. He acknowledged that it is a lot of work, but reassured us that the chapters we will be reading are short. The longest chapter in one of our books is apparently only eight pages, so that's really good news. I'm still waiting for my books to come in the mail, though, but he promised to make copies for me if they aren't here by the end of his office hours.

As for the paper, I feel no less prepared than anyone else in the class. There are only three of us, and one of the others hasn't written anything longer than nine pages, and that was for a class last year. She's also concerned about the essay exam, but compared to the ones my adviser gives in her classes, these exams won't be too bad. I can tell this girl is worried, though, so maybe I'll see if they want to do a study group one night. She hasn't had class with either of us before and she even referred to herself as an outsider during her introduction, so we will definitely have to fix that.

Overall, I'm way less worried than I was before. And I hate to admit that the stupid honors director may have been right. But he may have been. Maybe. There are still seventeen days left of class for him to be wrong. Even worse, though, I want him to be right because I want to graduate with honors. Failure is not an option, lol.

Whew!

That better blogger thing is apparently not working out! Time for another round of catch up :D

Good News:

*My shawls were sent to their new home and the recipients loved them. It always feels good when hard work is appreciated and I know that this is definitely the case. Mom's friend was so surprised that she got a shawl, too. She and her daughter can't wait to wear them to football games.

*I made it through my first class and got an A! I have yet to hear back about whether or not I earned my honors component, but I loved the book that I had to read for it and I enjoyed writing the report. Fingers crossed that I get it, because I am SO close to graduating with honors.

*Work study is still going great and tutoring hasn't been a strain on my schedule. I was a little worried I was taking on too much, and I still might be. Which brings us to the not so good news.

Not So Good News:

*This next class might just kill me. We have sixteen days to write a twenty page paper using twenty four academic sources. I promise you that this will be the most I have written on the block schedule. It is also more pages and sources than the minimum requirements for my honors thesis. On top of this, we have to read nine chapters of leadership textbooks every night. That whole bad blogger thing is just going to get worse.

*I'm not a fan of our new honors director. Every conversation I've had with him steers back to what he wants the students to do about reviving the program. At our first council meeting he even stated that he was going to get everything organized so that if he handed it over to someone else, they wouldn't have to do so much work. Really? I can't get over feeling like he doesn't care about the students themselves, just how many he can get to sign up. And if he's already thinking about stepping down from a position he just took over, he isn't very reliable. I'm just really disappointed that out of all of the professors here, he's the one who ended up with it.

But, I saved the best for last!

BEST News:

Remember that exciting news I was going to share soon? Here it is: I am officially a sorority girl! My dream almost ten years in the making has come true, and it is even better than I could have imagined. I am now a member of Beta Sigma Phi, a non-collegiate social sorority that allows their members to stay active for life. I have a lifetime to make up for the fact that I fell in love with a school with no Greek life. My chapter, Online Kappa, is full of such wonderful women and I couldn't be prouder to call them my sisters. I can't wait for my pledge ritual so that I can wear my tiny pin at every appropriate opportunity. I've cut out fabric to make a lettered tote bag and I have more fabric waiting to be cut for a sweatshirt. I will definitely post pictures of them as soon as I'm done. In the meantime, the promise of sewing letters and completing pledge training will be a bribe to finish my school work in a timely manner. We'll see how it works, lol, but I will definitely get my school work done!