the semester is over!

The semester is over! Wow! I am completely a college student. I've got a semester under my belt and that means I'm one step closer to having a degree. That's mindblowing!

The exams weren't terrible.

Monday: I had to do a 8-minute presentation for Media and Culture (I'm not sure how long it actually was)

Tuesday: I had English, which was an essay exam in which we were given the prompts ahead of time and we got to brainstorm the prompts ourselves

Wednesday: day off

Thursday: Intro to Retail Merchandising and Design in the AM--very reasonable test, considering the study guide had looked so hard!--and FYS in the afternoon. I don't think I did fabulously on FYS, maybe an an 80-85? I'm not sure. Hopefully higher but I really don't know. Oh well--as long as I pass!

So today, I'm heading home. I actually am really adjusting to college life well, in my opinion. I kinda don't want to go home. I love the independence I have here and being able to walk over 20 feet to my friends' rooms at any time. Laundry and dishes are a drag, yeah, but being able to come and go when you want is so freeing, and you set your own mealtimes and everything. I adore my family, but I'm growing up and I'm needing my space. Isn't that surprising? If you knew me before college, I was so close to my family and I wasn't very independent, and college seemed like a huge step for me that could have possibly ended badly and quickly. But nope, I've been here almost 4 months and I'm doing well!...Ugh except for the girls upstairs from me--they're moving furniture at quarter to two in the morning and it's making ear-piercing squeaks, ouch!

I won't be writing any official blogs over break, so have a great winter break and happy holidays to you all!

an awful lot of college ball!

Wow, I feel like I've been playing a lot of college ball lately. If I haven't explained it before, it's a multiplayer game on a pool table. Players take turns hitting one of the colored balls with the cue ball, and the point is to never let the colored ball stop moving and to hit it into the pocket. When someone hits it into the pocket, the player after them gets a point. When you get 3 points, you're out. And so you keep going until there's only 1 person with less than 3 points. It's kinda nervewracking, I'll admit--it's so fast-moving! So I've been playing it with Chris and Peter and other guys, and the occasional girl. It's so much fun.

Last night I also went to the "finals midnight breakfast" with Chris and Peter and Jacob. It's a breakfast at 10 PM, served by the faculty and staff. Isn't that weird? It's hilarious to see them in their Santa hats behind the serving bar! There were also coloring pages and crayons at the tables. A good stress-reliever for a lot of people--you wouldn't believe how many college students love coloring! (I actually don't like coloring, but...) Speaking of coloring pages, here's one I did last week at our floor Christmas party (Santa has a purple suit!):


In other news, the decorations committee has been working overtime to try to figure everything out. Things look really promising, what with help from MCB and Matt Thomson, and a great phone call from Laura! (She managed to get us a huge deal on the city skyline!)

Something really exciting and funny happened to me on my birthday. I forgot to write about it then. See, on Thursday I was at Big Brothers Big Sisters in Lima, which is about 20 minutes away, and the local news came to interview us. So on Friday at 6 PM I was on the local news saying how much fun I have with my Little. Then on Saturday, as Marie and I were pulling out of Morey's, she spotted a coworker and the coworker's daughter-in-law. The daughter in law takes a look at me and says, "Wait a minute, I know you. You were on the news!" It was so funny that she remembered me and so exciting to be recognized! I felt famous :-)

Wow, just thinking of that makes me grin! :-)

my birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday! So, I went to brunch with my parents' friend Marie who lives in town. We went to Morey's, the new coffeeshop in town. I'm not sure how well it's doing--Common Grounds, the other coffeeshop, is much more established and definitely is popular. I love Common Grounds' steamers! And so Morey's was okay, nothing very special, but I had a great time with Marie, she's a great listener.


Then I came back to the dorms and cleaned and slept and did homework. Then at five, Melissa, Danette, and I went to Kristen's grandma's house, which is just a few minutes away. Kristen and Katy had made dinner and cake. It was just macaroni and cheese and hot dogs, and frozen vegetables, but it was so good because it wasn't Marbeck--I'm sorry, but Marbeck macaroni and cheese is disgusting to me! (To be fair, Melissa and Danette like it...but I just can't stand it!) Then we watched Chocolat, and Jake stopped by for awhile. I liked the movie, it was good, and Johnny Depp was in it. I never used to like him much, but I think I'm developing a celebrity crush on him!

All in all, a pretty good birthday, particularly considering the fact that it was my first birthday away from home!

good things and snowball fights

Hey everyone. So I've had a pretty good week, for the most part, particularly the last few days. It was the last day of classes for the semester today, and so that was satisfying. I'm a real college student now! I have 1 semester under my belt! (Besides exams, but I'm not worried about them.)

Yesterday, Amy T. and Kim went to a meeting of Marbeck Center Board, the group that puts on activities on campus (MCB). We went to ask if they would like to work with us on the Winter Formal. I was keeping my expectations low, suggesting that if they could donate, you know, $50 or so, so that we could get a live band, and if they could help us with advertising, that would be great. Well, they ended up more than doubling our budget, giving us an almost dream-come-true budget. It'll still be a challenge to transform Burkey Gym into someplace magical, but we're up to the challenge. We wanted to hold it on campus because it would save us $600 (renting The Centre, like they usually do, costs that much) and so that more people might be able to come, because they can walk there instead of having to drive. Unfortunately, even though we expected to be able to have that $600 to decorate, the budget ended up being tighter, and we didn't get any of that $600. So partnering with MCB will be fabulous...and they have a fountain we can use! :-) (I've been wanting to use a fountain ever since we started planning this thing!)

Also, today my new computer came. My old one has been giving me so much trouble, and so Dell replaced it. Thank you, Dell! So hopefully it won't crash all the time anymore. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

My Scentsy system came today, too. It's a candlewarmer with blocks of scented wax. I tell you, it smells SO INCREDIBLY GOOD. I have something like "Orange Citrus" in right now, and it's heavenly. I can't believe how wonderful my room smells. And my room already looks festive, because I put up the strand of lights that I bought last week at Hobby Lobby for $2:

Yes, my room is an incredible mess. I'm Hurricane Holly. My roommate Meghan is so neat, we're such opposites. But she doesn't have nearly as much stuff as I do because she gets to go home every weekend and she doesn't have a job that makes her bring stuff back to the room and she doesn't eat in the room. My part of the room serves as my office and kitchen and storage as well as just my bedroom and living room. So really, I feel like I can't help having so much stuff! There's just not enough room for it all!

I was pretty happy because I put in a few hours of work this week. I don't have a regular work schedule as the student assistant for the honors program, but this week we did mailings, so I put in at least 3 or 4 hours for that. Money is always a good thing :-)

Oh, and my birthday is tomorrow, so I already opened my package from my mom. It has a pretty gold scarf in it, which is totally my style. I think I'll wear it tomorrow. And I like the sweater my parents sent too.

Last night, my friend Kristy made her first snow angel (she's from Los Angeles), and Danette did one too, and it was adorable. Then tonight Danette started a snowball fight on our way back from dinner. (I didn't participate--I stay out of stuff like that--but it was funny to watch.) I love how Danette acts in the snow--like a little kid!

Well, I have to go do some more planning for the formal! I'll write tomorrow!

unexpected weekend

On Friday, I was just such a hard little worker :-) I stopped in 3 offices over the course of the day to deal with timesheet stuff for my jobs, and I picked up brochures for the honors program to send out in the first mailing we're doing. I had no idea what I was doing this weekend when I went into it. It felt like the week had sort of flown by, and I was sort of surprised when it came. Danette went home and Kristy had to work, so I went to dinner with Jen, and then we went out to Enchanted. (It was my second time seeing it, and I think I liked it better this time. Jen and I left with big grins on our faces, it made us so happy!) Then I came back to my room and did laundry, dishes, and homework. Today, I went out with Tabitha and 2 girls named Meghan to Party America and Hobby Lobby to look for stuff for Winter Formal, and we had a really good time. We stopped at Dots, too, which was fun. Then after having dinner with Kristen and her boyfriend Doug, I went to Wal-Mart with Kristen and Katy (whom we now call "kay-DEE" in a low voice!). It was pretty scary because it was so icy out. But once we were in the store, it was definitely fun. I got a present for my little brother--hopefully he'll like it. I already have a present for my mom, so now I need to find one for my dad! I feel accomplished :-)

Then tonight, this guy Mike stopped by to talk about film. I don't know him well; I just know him through a friend. We had a nice talk. It must have lasted an hour and a half or so because we strayed from the main topic a LOT!

A cute thing I wanted to share: in the bathroom, we have sheets of paper that have questions on them, and everyone writes their answers in. So I hadn't checked one particular question for a few days--"Who's your favorite movie star?"--so I looked tonight, and guess what was up there as an answer? "Holly Nickeson"! I thought that was so cute! Thanks, whoever that was!