A Day On, Not A Day Off

So today is Scholarship and Creativity Day here at good old CSB/SJU. That means that we don't have any classes, but as our profs keep telling us, it's not a day off. We're to go and support our fellow students that are giving presentations.... yeah, that's not happening. I slept until 11:30, took the bus back to CSB, and just now got back from lunch with Brittany. Last night, we had a scary movie night in Jon's room, and it was TERRIFYING! We (meaning me, Brittany, Heather, Merideth, Rogers, Ben, and off and on, Jon) watched the Shining. I'm not very good with scary movies as it is, and when I'm watching them in a dark room, it's even worse. I had Brittany's and Heather's hands in death grips for most of it, and then ended up on the floor in Merideth's arms because she wouldn't let me leave the room. Around 12:00 am, someone knocked on the door really loudly, and I jumped a mile, picked up Merideth I was squeezing her so tight, and screamed my head off. I have a scratch on my cheek today from the zipper on the sweatshirt that Merideth was wearing. So yeah, good times.

In other news, the past week has been a good one. I've been in a great mood for the past couple of weeks, which is always nice. I celebrated my birthday with my family last Saturday, and it was nice to see them again. Otherwise, nothing too exciting has gone on. The weather has been BEAUTIFUL, so it's been hard to go to classes, but I'm hanging in there. I've been spending a lot of time with the girls, especially Heather, and with Jon, which has been fantastic. I'm not looking forward to the end of the year, but I just try not to think about it.

That's all for now! love to all...

Back to the Grindstone

The rest of my Easter break was fabulous: the family came up on Sunday, which was great, and then on Monday we got up around 9:00 and headed out an hour later. Back at school, we unpacked, and did a combination of laundry, homework, visiting, and procrastinating until about 6:00. We ended up at SJU by 7:15 and hung out there as people got back. I brought back a huge basket of Easter candy and cupcakes, courtesy of my mom and aunt for the boys, which went over VERY well with them. They had it gone by mid-evening Tuesday :o) As the evening wore on, more and more people came back, which is always fun. Brittany, Jon and I headed down to the dock to check out the lake (which is completely open!!!) and caught each other up on our breaks. Brittany and I went back down later, after the stars came out, and chatted. You'd think that after spending five days straight with each other, we would have run out of things to say, but it's not true. Then it was back to CSB for bed so we could be "well rested" for classes on Tuesday.

As I did no homework over break, I've been playing catch up for the whole week. I had a quiz in Comm this morning, and a portion of my French novel had to be read and deciphered, with answers to questions to go along with it. My first draft of a 12 page research paper is due tomorrow night, and I have a bunch of reading and journaling to do for Peace Studies. However, I'm completely done with classes for the week (no class tomorrow; yay!) and my birthday is on Saturday. Thus, I'm not too worried about any of it. The weather has been beautiful, Brittany and I have had nightly dates at the dock, and I've gotten to spend a lot of time with Jon, so I am one happy camper.

I hope all is well with all of you... Enjoy the rest of the week and weekend!

The Adventures of Brittany and Rachel Part 2

Well I made it through the last day of school with surprising ease. I ended up staying up until almost two a.m. in order to finish my annotated bibliography for my research paper that was due on Wednesday, since I kept getting distracted at SJU, but getting out of bed in the morning wasn't too bad. I even made it into jeans and a t-shirt for class rather than sweats! Class was class, boring as usual, but then I caught a bus to SJU to pick up some books for my paper, wish Jon and Heather good luck on a presentation, and see everyone one last time before break. I ended up staying at SJU until 1:30, so I could spend a little more time with Jon before he left, so I got back to CSB around 1:45 and headed up to my room to start the packing process. Brittany was in class until 2:00, and then had to pack as well, since neither of us had started at all. I finished first, went over to her room and helped her finish, and picked out songs to put on our mix cd for the car. It ended up taking us almost two hours to do all that, and we took off around 4:00.

We rolled into Princeton a little after 5:00, picked up some movies from Coborn's and headed to my house. We made it home much earlier than expected, so we joined my family for dinner, and then went down to the basement and made ourselves at home. In our basement, which..... drumroll please..... after ten years is finally finished!! It's all done, with carpeting, ceilings, paint on the walls, things all cleaned up, and it looks FANTASTIC. The last time I was home, the floors had just barely been started, and it was a mess. I keep looking around and getting shocked with how different it looks down here. Since it is so nice, we've decided to stay down here for the whole break. That way, we can watch movies and stay up late, as well as sleep late with not too many problems. 

Wednesday night, we were both exhausted and were in bed (aka a mattress on the floor) by 11:00 and slept until almost 11:00 the next morning. We then proceeded to do absolutely nothing productive with the rest of the day. Neither of us changed out of our jammies, and we pretty much sat around and talked and read for the whole day. We watched a couple of movies before falling asleep around 1:30. Now we're both up getting ready for the day, since we're going to Mass in a couple of hours. We both have a lot of homework to do, but neither of us has the motivation to start it, so we've put that off so far. It's been nice to get away from school for the last couple of days, and plus, Easter is getting closer and closer, which means we can eat chocolate again soon!

That's about it for now, so have a great day and see some of you on Sunday! xo

Quick Update

One day left... I can do it! This weekend was a good one; I was in bed by 10:30 Friday night, and my evening/afternoon before that consisted of a two hour nap, a quick dinner, and a movie in my bed. It was great. I loved it. Saturday, Brittany, Merideth, Jon and I went into St. Cloud to hit up Target for some necessary (and unnecessary) items. Joe was taking his ACTs at SCSU, and he came out to meet us when he was done. We walked the mall, then came back to CSB to drop off the other three, and then Joe and I headed back into St. Cloud. We went to the blowout sale at the Sportsman Warehouse, back to SCSU for a quick tour, and then out to dinner. My little brother is growing up- he took me to Applebee's and paid for it all! It was great to hang out with Joe for awhile, especially since we hardly ever get any one on one time. 

Sunday, I hosted a prospective student for the night. She came around 3:30 or so, we did homework for an hour and then headed to SJU for dinner and a concert. After the concert, which was amazing, we went to Mass in the Abbey, and came back upstairs to watch a movie with the boys. It was fly-in weekend, so almost all the boys were hosting students as well, which was kind of fun. What was not fun was the fact that my prospie had to come back over to SJU for an 8:00 am class.... and I had to come with her. Blech. 

The past two days have just been class and work and getting ready to go home for a few days. Brittany is coming home with me and I am soooooo excited. We can't wait to get away from all the drama and just hang out. Granted, we both have a ton of homework to do, but at least we don't have to get up for classes or worry about working. 

I hope everyone's week goes wonderfully and that Easter is great, just in case I don't get back on here before then. Love you all!

On The Go

What a week! Last Wednesday, Brittany, Merideth, Erin and I signed up for our rooms. The four of us got two rooms right next to each other on Lottie three, which is exactly what we wanted. Molly and her friend are living on the other side of Brittany and Merideth, and two of Erin's friends are just down the hall. We're all really excited to be living by each other and we've started making room plans. I think I've found a futon, and Erin's going to get a t.v., so we're pretty much set. I can't wait to live with someone that I can actually talk to, someone that I feel comfortable asking to leave so I can sleep... etc. etc. 

Thursday through Saturday brought new activities every night. Thursday night, the GAC jazz band (Karl's jazz band) played in Albany, which is only about 10 minutes away from SJU, so Brittany and I headed out there after dinner. The concert was phenomenal, and it was GREAT to see Karl again. Linda and Colin were there too, and we all went out to DQ after the concert to chat and catch up. Friday night Brittany, Heather, Ben and I went to the musical review on campus and that was absolutely wonderful. I knew a lot of the performers, and they did a great job. The four of us that went got all dressed up and had a blast. Saturday, after I got back from celebrating Easter at my grandma's house, nine of us went to see Noises Off which was a really funny play, and then we went into town and got some pizza and hung out for a while. Sunday was a bit of a rest; I did some homework, went to church, and then went to SJU for the remainder of the evening. 

The beginning of this week was rough. I had three tests yesterday, one right after another, and the days before that were filled with studying. Luckily for me, we had another snow storm hit on Tuesday, and because the roads were pretty bad, classes were cancelled, and so was work. That was fantastic! Brittany, Heather and I spent the day hanging out, doing homework, reading, and watching movies. It was really nice to relax here at CSB for a day, and I got to go to bed early too, in preparation for my tests. My first test was at 8:00 am at SJU, and then I just kept going from there. I got done around 12:30, grabbed lunch with the crew, headed back to CSB and got ready to register for classes. Unfortunately, I got an email about 15 minutes before I registered, saying that one of the classes I wanted to take was full, and that there would be no more sections opening up. That was a bummer, but I had picked out another class to fill that spot too, just in case.... I went to register, only to find out that I couldn't get in to that class either. That was a bummer, and I had to do some juggling, but I ended up with three comm classes, a math class, a math independent learning project, and piano lessons. I still have an 8:00 am at SJU, but it's a comm class that I'm taking with one of my friends from my math class last semester, so it should be fun. My other new news is that I withdrew from piano lessons for the remainder of the semester. I decided that with everything I have going on for the rest of the semester, I just don't have the time or energy to play catch up. I'll keep my scholarship on a disability claim, and resume lessons next fall. 

Now, I just have to make it through the next two days and it's the weekend. I can't wait! Love to all.

Finally!

I'm free! I got to take my brace off this morning, this time for good. I am very excited about this, and I'm making good use of my freedom. It's kind of funny though, I still forget sometimes that I can use my left hand properly, and I go to use it the way I have been for the past few weeks. 

Anyway, it's been a week or so since I've been on here. So it's time for a fill-in. This past weekend, Karen came up for Little Sib's weekend, which was fun. Dad brought her up Friday evening, and we met in St. Cloud for dinner. My best friend Brittany had her whole family up (two boys, 6 and 12, and her sister, 17, plus her parents) and an extra friend that wanted to tour the school, so we all got together when I got back to CSB and just kind of hung out for the night. We met some of the boys and then went to a comedy act, which was quite good. Merideth, Heather, and Brittany also had one of their mutual high school friends up, and we met her Saturday morning. Saturday was filled with a photo scavenger hunt and more hanging out. We popped in a movie late Saturday night, since none of our visitors were used to staying up until the wee hours of the morning. Sunday, Karen and I got up, went to breakfast, and then met Mom in Waite Park to catch the 12:30 showing of New In Town. For all you native Minnesotans out there, I would recommend you watch that. It's not amazing enough to the point where I would say go see it in theaters, but someday, rent it. It's pretty funny. 

Other than that, nothing too exciting has happened in my life over the past week and a half. I've been working on a couple of research papers for various classes, and trying to stay ahead in all of my others. I work approximately 11 hours each week, spread out over Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and then enjoy Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Piano lessons are still up in the air; I have definitely decided though to either drop them or take an incomplete. I sign up for my room tomorrow, and I'm really excited about that. But that's about it.

Love to all...

Even The Most Carefully Laid Plans....

can end up changing completely. My weekend was all planned out in my head, starting with Friday night. I was going to have a piano lesson around 4:30, do some homework, grab something to eat, head over to SJU around 7:30, see Karen, come back to CSB around 9:45, relax in my empty room (Sami was gone all weekend for basketball), and get to bed by about midnight. Saturday, we were going to be up and headed into St. Cloud by 11:00, shop for a few hours and be back early afternoon to do some homework before having another girl's night, this time in my room. Sunday we were going to sleep in late, finish any homework, go to church, and then head over to SJU for the remainder of the evening.

Wanna know how my weekend actually turned out?

Friday night, I did have my piano lesson around 4:30, and it turned out to be pretty upsetting for me. As it turns out, with my tendonitis messing with my practicing, I may have to take an incomplete in my lessons, or even drop the course. I'm really rather upset about this, since I love playing piano. Our decision for the time being is for me to take another week off, and see how things are going by the end of March. I'm hoping to finish the semester out and then take a little more time off at the beginning of my summer. After my lesson, I met up with Brittany, Merideth, and Heather and we got dinner at CSB before heading over to SJU on the 6:30 bus. I did in fact get to see Karen, who was playing in the pep band for a girl's basketball game, but it was only for a couple minutes. I didn't want to pay to get into the game, so I went back to Mary 2 with the girls and was waiting around for the next bus when we all decided to go check out the dance in the pub. Suffice it to say, I didn't make it home and into bed until 1:30. Brittany spent the whole weekend in my room, and we talked for just a couple of minutes before falling asleep. 

Saturday morning, we didn't end up leaving for St. Cloud until noon, since Heather had to work. We shopped the mall; got some essentials, as well as some fun stuff, and made it back to CSB around 3:30. The other girls headed over to SJU after a couple of hours of homework, and I stayed back to keep working. Brittany ended up taking the 9:15 bus back to CSB, and we met up in the Gorecki for a quick bowl of cereal before heading back to my room. We worked on some stuff for a little while, and then decided to head over to Regina to check out a party that was supposed to be going on, but it wasn't, so we left. We ended up sitting in Mary Hall Commons for a good hour and a half, just talking and people watching. Finally, around 12:30 we headed up to my room and crawled in bed. About 15 minutes later, the boys showed up. They had been out in St. Joe, and ended up hanging out with us until the 2:00 bus. We finally got to bed around 2:30 and slept until 9:00. 

On Sunday, I did a little homework before meeting up with my collegebound group for breakfast. We chatted until a little after 11:00, and then I went to practice piano for mass, came back to my room, took a quick shower, got ready for church, and went to SJU for an orchestra concert with Brittany. It lasted until just before I needed to head back for church, so I got out of there pretty quickly. Mass went well; it was confirmation and Bishop Kinney was  the presider. After mass, Brittany and I headed back to SJU for the remainder of  the evening. All was uneventful until about 11:30, when all the power on the campus was lost due to an excel power outage combined with our generator dying. I was irrationally scared, and ended up spending the night because I refused to drive back to CSB and then spend the night alone in my bed. Brittany and I slept in Jon's room, and Merideth was in Steve and Geo's room. We slept until about 7:30, when we found out that classes were cancelled for the day, which was an awesome discovery. The rest of the morning, we just hung out on Jon's futon, chatting with each other and the random people that walked in. At one point we walked over to the Reef and had some dry cereal. Finally around 1:15, we all came back to CSB and worked out. The weather was gorgeous today, so most of the group ran outside and then came back to our dorms and did homework outside. Brittany and I got food with Jon and Geo around 4:00, and then I had to work. After work, Brittany and I attended a speaker, and were about to head over to SJU when we realized that there was still no light over there. We decided to stay here, which worked out well, since all of our guys are here too. We're currently just sitting around doing homework and hoping against all hope that the generator will prove impossible to fix by tomorrow. As of right now, all classes at CSB are scheduled to go regularly and SJU classes are pending. I would definitely be up for a couple more days of cancelled classes, but it doesn't look too promising. Most of our boys are thinking about spending the night here, so we'll see what happens. 

Whew, that was long. I hope all is well where you are. Have a great day and don't forget to smile because I love you!