Color Me Jealous

Kate (my sister) and Andy's new puppy. Her name is Chloe.


Can't wait to meet my new niece of sorts next week! I'm going to be a fabulous aunt!!

Chloe riding in the car to their apartment.

Awwwwww! 

Reminds me of Flash... zzzzzzz

Hyperbole and a Half and Puppy Love

"Love is wonderful in that it can never be wasted or used up. We can never replace the people or animals we have loved, but the love we feel for them can be expanded. I like to think of love as being stretchy. It is easy to feel guilty when you start to love a new pet - like somehow that means you love your old friend less. But when you think of love as being stretchy and able to expand, you can see that there will always be room for everything. You can love as much as you want."

When I hear something like this, I remember Sally, and it makes me smile a little. I still love her and miss her, and we really grew up together. But Flash and Opal are wonderful, and the love I have really did stretch to include them both.

Anyway, this is a quote from my new hero: Hyperbole and a Half

Her blog is SOOOOOOOOO FUNNNY! It's full of drawings and randomness and a noodle with a speech impediment. IT'S AWESOME. The post about ALOT is my life in a nutshell.

This is a tiny taste of her genius. Absolutely all credit goes to Allie!

And So It Begins

I don't expect every college in the world to be Mizzou. And I'm not saying that registering for summer classes should be instant and online at every college (but really, I mean it's 2010 here).

But when it takes six hours on and off of calling to get registered for summer classes, that's when it becomes a little ridiculous.

But I'm registered, I'm taking summer classes, and it's all sorted out now. I've just got to finish this semester, which is seeming more and more impossible!

Wish me luck!

And a Dash of Feminism for Flavor

Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater.

If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby.
If you give her a house, she'll give you a home.
If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal.
If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart.

She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.

:D I feel like I should be getting that embroidered on a pillow or something.

Anyway, my roommate and I have been battling my...ummm... bug condition? I guess that's a way to put it. I woke up one morning about a week ago now with this series of 8 or 9 bites on my arm in about a 3 inch space, and they REALLY burned when they got wet in the shower. So I slap some hydrocortizone on it, and forget about it. But I happened to mention it to Jessica and in the space of five minutes, the girl has me convinced I was attacked by a spider living in my clothing, I have bed bugs, or I could possibly have fleas or ticks or something else living in my bed. So naturally, I pulled all of my sheets and my mattress pad and did some major laundry. I'm really not worried because the bites are almost healed, but she's still freaking out a bit.

Check that out HERE. That's her amazing blog. Muy inspiring. She's going in to broadcast journalism, but her blog makes me think she should definitely be writing. Something. Somewhere.

I think things will be better now that's she has washed her sheets too. Either way, we are moving out in two weeks now. It's crazy that my freshman year of college is coming to a close. Wasn't it just yesterday I was packing to get here? And now I'm trying to figure out how in the world I'm going to get all this junk home.

And I'm wondering what it will be like with friends for next year. The roommate thing will be changing. Jessica is headed into her sorority house and I'm going to be reslife staff, and it will be a change to just be friends and not roommates. But I think it'll be good. And what about other friends? You know, the people I hung out with those first weeks of college aren't really even a part of my life anymore, and honestly I have about five people I'm interested in staying in touch with from this year. It will be so different to come back in the fall, and sort of start over.

Which brings me to my last point for this post, which is getting ridiculously long. Any thoughts out there on whether I should blog over the summer?? This blog is supposed to be about my college days. Is the summer a part of that? I was thinking maybe I would set the mandate of only blogging about things in context of college, but I don't want to miss anything substantial either. Opinions, as always, are appreciated.

Letting Go

Two in one day AGAIN! This is insane here people!

I've known this day was coming for about ten months now. I knew eventually I would get here, but I just couldn't imagine ever being on this side of the fence.

As of today, I am no longer a JC for the IAJHSC Leadership Camp. Today mail went out and emails ensued for all of those lucky ones who will be returning to camp this summer. And since Leadership Camp has been such a huge part of my life, I figured I owed it some blog time.

It was 2001 when I first stepped foot into Allerton Park in Monticello, IL. I was with my family, dropping my sister off at this camp full of crazy weirdos jumping around and singing and making noise. I went back in 2003, when I dropped my brother off for the same experience. And finally, I went for myself in the summer of 2004, armed with the knowledge and wisdom of my siblings, whose only advise was: be yourself.

That one single week taught me everything I know about being my own person, and I can't begin to describe how camp changed my life. And going back as a JC was the best of my high school years.

I can't even come close to explaining all of the amazing experiences I had at camp, so I won't even try, but I do have to say that camp isn't a place, or a week full of events. Camp is a song in my heart that will always be playing in the background, and its influence touches everything I do.

I'm incredibly grateful for my years at camp, and I'd love to go back as a senior staffer and continue giving back to that powerful organization and learning from those amazing delegates. But for now, I'll be sad and jealous that all of my friends get to go back because they are still in high school and eligible to be JCs, and I'm in college, forced to move on with my life and let go.

Exploring Mizzou

One of my personal philosophies is that there is always something more to learn.

Whether that applies to classes, jobs, or life in general, I think it's an attitude everyone should adopt in their own life.

One thing I thoroughly enjoy about Mizzou is that there is always an opportunity to learn more about this beautiful campus. Some days, I take a different walk across campus, and discover a building I never even knew existed, such as London hall, which I found today. Sometimes, I cut through a building instead of walking around, and come across the offices of an organization I had heard of, but never seen.

It might seem mundane to most of you, but I'm just adding it all to my mental list. The more I know about this place I love, the better reference I can be for my residents next year and for prospective students I see on campus. I hate not knowing the answer to one of their questions, so every little bit of my information adds up.

It might seem strange that I've been on campus for almost a whole year now and yet there is still more to be learned every day. But I grew up in a tiny town in Menard County, and I wouldn't dare to say that I know where each road is in Menard, or even where every store is. But with each drive in the country, and each walk around campus, we add to our personal arsenal of knowledge, and come out better armed for the future.

And My Job Comes Crumbling Down

I promised you two in one day, so here goes the second!

I work at a dining hall on campus called Eva J's, and yesterday I had to work. On Mondays I work the slowest shift from 2:30 to 4pm. And yesterday the dish machine broke so we had to quickly take all of the dishes off the counters so students wouldn't use them, and replace them with paper products.

I got to work on it right away, and stacked plates and some bowls, and was working my way through the room. So we have these carts that we put dishes on, and they're all shaped differently depending on what size dish goes where. Someone had put a stack of about ten small bowls in a soup bowl slot, which is much too large for those bowls. Without thinking through the consequences, since I was in a hurry, I started putting the same bowls on top of those. And, you guessed it, as soon as I moved the cart, all of them came spilling out.

If you've ever wondered what dropping around 50 glass bowls sounds like, let me be the first to tell you, it isn't pretty and it is VERY loud.

All three managers were there, and came running to see what had happened. I was already in the process of cleaning things up and simply trying not to make the situation worse. Two of the bosses jumped right into help, while I went to get a broom. The other manager, well you can imagine that one.

Here's the most important part, and how the dialogue played out (names have been removed to protect, well, mostly myself):

Angry Manager: "How did this happen Kathy?"
Manager on the floor cleaning: "Someone must have stacked the dishes here and when she moved them, they all fell out.
Me: Oh, I wish. "No, there were a few there, but I stacked the rest without thinking about it, and they broke when I moved the cart."
Angry Manager: "I'm really disappointed in you Kathy, you were supposed to be helping fix the situation, not make it worse."

So you see from this how VERY easy it would have been to just be like, you're right manager on the floor cleaning, that IS how it happened. But I couldn't do that. Even crying and stressed out and upset as I was, I didn't want to put the blame on someone else who might have gotten in trouble for it. Damn my parents for raising me right!

Anyway, so I finished cleaning up the incredible amount of glass on the floor, crying the whole time. Not to mention that anytime someone said something about it, I started crying again. I felt like an idiot, but when I genuinely feel sorry for something, I tend to cry. It's a very traumatizing habit.

I pretty much assumed I was going to be fired, and when I was done with the shift, I approached one of the managers, said I was sorry again, and offered to pay for it. She was WAY too nice about the whole thing, said it happens to everyone, and her and another full-time worker who is super sweet hugged me until I stopped crying. Angry manager had left at that point, but I'll see her at work again today. Yikes.

Anyway, I learned a lot from this whole thing. Mostly, I won't be making any rash decisions anytime soon, but I guess you can say that something like that does happen to everyone, and we grow and move on, and probably a cry a little (or in my case, a lot).

Oh Yeah Professors, I Feel Your Pain

So I have been incredibly busy awful about updating my blog lately, so I thought I'd give you two in one day. Hold on to your hats people!

Let's start by back tracking to late March. It's 5:05 and I have a meeting at 5:30. I decide to quickly check my email while I'm getting ready to leave, and WHAM! I start screaming my head off and freaking out and jumping up and down on my knees on my bed (too tall to do that standing up). Why am I having a spaz attack, you ask? Well only because I found out I got the student staff position I applied for!

What has two thumbs and is working in Defoe-Graham next year?? THIS GIRL! Ok, probably everyone else working there has two thumbs too, but I haven't met them yet, so I don't want to judge.

Anyway, these last few weeks have been filled with a bucket full of emails and a handful of staff training already. It's a little overwhelming just how much work PAs have to do to get ready for next fall. And I'm not trying to hate on CAs and LAs but you have it so EASY right now! While you sit quietly through one training session, we have extras AND meetings with our cofacs AND writing a syllabus to worry about.

Ok quick guide to Mizzou lingo for those not familiar:
PA- Peer Advisor- lives in the residence hall with students, and also teaches a class to about 15-20 of those residents called a FIG (freshman interest group)
CA- Community Advisor- lives in the residence hall with students
LA- Leadership Advisor- lives in the hall with students, also advises hall government
NCO- Non-Commissioned Officer- Army/Navy ROTC all that jazz, but like a PA
HC- Hall Coordinator- a professional who lives and works in a hall and coordinates staff and students while handling the official business end of things

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'M EXCITED! But there's a lot to worry about, which brings me to the title of the post.

Writing a syllabus is HARD! There's a lot to think about, and a ton of factors to take into consideration. I suppose it would be easier if you were a professor and therefore an authority on your subject and it wasn't a concern that you would sound like a moron. But since I'm teaching an Exploring Culture and Religion FIG, I'm not exactly an authority here.

Anyway, wish me luck! Here's to hoping I don't screw up too many lives!

Lists Fix All

So it's been a long and stressful day that resulted in no classes, missed homework, two hours of work (in 100 degree heat because the AC isn't on) and a doctor's visit. Lots to process there, but I'll let the world know if I know anything.

So instead of sharing my life, I thought I'd update some interesting insights I've had lately/absolutely random crap to take my mind off things.

1. Local government in Missouri is like God, only better. You think I'm joking, but they seriously worship that here. Mayoral elections were today and it was this really big thing and I got messages on FB and Twitter telling me to vote, and I'm not even a registered Missourian! It seems like all the locals I know are really involved with it and knew all the candidates names. I don't even know my own mayor's name in Petersburg! Don't I feel lame.

2. Spring Weather = disgusting clothing (or lack thereof). Cover up the rolls and the cottage cheese legs, thanks! I'm not saying everyone needs to wear jeans and long shirts, but I don't really want to see your crotch or your tots up close and personal while I'm walking through campus.

3. Reality TV and Zombies have a lot in common. Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, the Bachelor, you name it! They're all eating brains!

4. Castle, on the other hand, is awesome.

5. Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog will get stuck in your head and will be very embarrassing to sing out loud A big old thank you to Annie Dirks for introducing me to this movie, but I've had the songs stuck in my head since Saturday.

6. Ending a list on a number that isn't 5 or 10 (or a multiple) is very annoying. But some times you really only have 6 things to say!