Unsolicited Advice 10/14

Listening to the soundtrack from Ever After. So romantic. Sorry, I'm sappy tonight.
Munching Dove Cookies and Cream Promises
    I don't know that this will become a permanent feature or anything, but I sort of like the idea. I'm young; I haven't experienced much in my life yet. But that doesn't mean I don't learn lessons that are worth sharing. And maybe it will be helpful coming from someone who's just learned this lesson rather than a parent or teacher who's repeated the story over and over. Today's lesson:

Listen to Your Professors

Even if you don't respect them.

    Something I've noticed in my classes - and I'm guilty of it, too - is students not respecting their professors. I don't know why this is happening, but it really drives me nuts since I'm going to be a teacher at some point in my life, and I know I will lose it if my own students act this abhorrently.

    Surely you're thinking, "Well, she admitted to being guilty of it, too..." Yes, I did. But I'm not vocal about it. I'm not outspoken in my lack of respect; I don't tell them to their faces they're not good teachers, even if I think it's true. But there's the rub. I do think it. Which is just as bad. I just didn't realize it was until this past week.

    I'm going to tell you about two of my professors (no names, of course). One teaches a lit class, and the other an education class. The lit class professor - Prof. Lit, we'll say - assigned a paper two weeks ago. Prof. Lit said that there had never been so many disappointing papers in one of his/her classes before. Three quarters of the class had to rewrite their papers, myself included, which almost never happens. See, we were given six prompts to choose from, all very specific. What I think happened is that Prof. Lit was looking for something very specific in these prompts and if we didn't give it to him/her, we failed. Now, I don't think of Prof. Lit as unqualified by any means, he/she is just looking for something specific and isn't getting that across to the class in the best way possible. Of course, many people in the class were quick to blame him/her and also to blatantly ignore what he/she instructed at the beginning of the class on Tuesday (i.e. if you have something you would like to address in your paper in particular, email him/her and set up an appointment). This got me super pissed because, again, no respect for what Prof. Lit had requested.

    Jump to Thursday in Prof. Ed's class. I can honestly say that I had not learned anything in this class up to this point. Nothing of use to me as a teacher, anyways. We were supposed to have a guest speaker who had a family emergency, so he/she had to come up with an alternate assignment so our class time wasn't wasted. Prof. Ed instructed us to choose a text we'd like to teach in our future classes and formulate a writing prompt for our students based on a specific portion of the text. This wasn't a problem for me. That's not what I learned that day. Offhandedly, when giving advice about making writing prompts for students, Prof. Ed said, "If in the future when you get papers from your students and they all bore you to tears or no one is giving you the papers you want, look at your prompt. Maybe you're being too specific and not leaving room for creativity." Of course, I immediately thought of Prof. Lit and wanted to replay that moment for him/her (I promise, if you'd let me come up with my own topic for my paper, it'd be a billion times better), but then I thought of something else. Inwardly, I have little respect Prof. Ed. I haven't learned anything to help my in my teaching career and I think he/she repeats the same useless information over and over. But I learned something about respect - you don't have to respect someone to learn something from them. I normally have the worst time trying to focus on listening in that class, because I dismiss every meandering story as next to useless. But if I hadn't been listening to that one comment, I could have easily fallen into the same ditch that currently held Prof. Lit in my future teaching career. And now I won't.

    Moral of the story: Listen anyway. Their meandering nonsensical useless tale may lead you to your own epiphany. Don't let your insolence keep you from inspiration.

Wait

Listening to the rain (wrote this Sunday night during a storm - so appropriate, I know).
Trying to stay positive.
    I've been in a long distance relationship for almost two years now, which isn't a lot in the long run, but it's longer than a lot of relationships last. Long distance was something I always thought of as a deal-breaker, though. And now I'm looking at another year and a half of long-distance before Corey's and my relationship takes its next step.
    And it's not easy. It's one of the hardest things I've ever done (heyo!). In all seriousness, if Corey wasn't already my best friend, this relationship never would have lasted. If I hadn't already had practice keeping in touch while he was in basic and knowing what I was getting into that Thanksgiving, I never would've been able to handle it. And I'm sure he wouldn't either. But at least I had a reliable means of communicating with him at that point.
    Add in the fact that this is a military relationship (another deal-breaker for younger and less mature Sarah), and you've truly got one of the most difficult relationships - and we've had it relatively easy. The worst we've dealt with was when he was in Afghanistan last summer, a deployment we were told would be seven to nine months which turned out being a mere five and a half. God's hand was all over that blessing. And they were only under fire once the whole time, and nowhere near where Corey was at the time. God had his hands on me that whole time, too - He kept me from depression, which runs in my family, and kept me mostly positive.
    I think I've had more days down in the dumps since he's been back, honestly - not because he's back, of course. It's just - he's in North Carolina, two states away, but still far enough travel-wise that I can't see him except every couple of months. So close and still so far. I know other couples have it worse, but that knowledge really doesn't make it any easier. It just makes me feel more guilty when I complain. (It's like something Corey says in the winter: "Putting on a jacket doesn't make you much warmer. It makes you a little less cold." He may or may not have gotten that from a comedian. I don't know; he likes so many I can't keep track of them all.)
    We've thought about getting married sooner. "So we don't have to be apart," we say. I could live on base with him, he'd get paid more, and we'd get to start "the rest of our lives" right now. But what happens when he's deployed in January? That's a pretty big strain on a new marriage. And Corey doesn't want to stay living where he is now; he wants to come back to our families in Georgia. So what, I'd move up for a year and then we'd have to go through the trouble of moving it all back in a year? Plus, I'm not finished with school and the closest state school to him doesn't have the program I need (plus I really love the Latin professor I have now - shout out to the amazing Dr. E!) Even if I moved up after I graduated, I'd only be there for three months before he got out, which is less time than it would take for me to find a job up there. The only option we have is to be apart until he gets out and we get married.
    I knew before I even kissed him two years ago that this relationship would end in one of two ways - we'd break up or end up getting married at some point. And after I kissed him I knew which one it would be. Knowing that this is the man I'm going to spend the rest of my life with is the only thing that keeps me going some days. I think about how I haven't seen him since the Fourth of July and how I still have another month until I'll get to see him again, and I can't help but fell the hot pricks of tears and the knot in my throat. But then I think how thoughtful he is, and how funny and clever and generous, and loving - not just to me, but all the people he's close to. I think about everything that makes him wonderful and I know that it's worth the wait.
     Waiting just sucks.

Anyone  else in a military relationship or long-term long-distance? Any advice? How do you stay positive?

Keep the Positivity Going

Listening to Maestro from The Holiday (sometimes I just need something to be my soundtrack, you know?)
Bracing myself for the upcoming semester.
    I start every semester so confidently. Yes, I can handle every class, and here are all my books, and sure you can borrow a pen because I have a billion, and oh I'm drinking pumpkin spice tea that I had plenty of time to French press this morning, and let me just jot that down in my planner. Roughly four weeks in, I'm reduced to sweats, half my books were left in the car because I didn't feel like carrying them, I've lost every pen but the one that only sometimes works, and we had a quiz today? When did he tell us that?
    I feel like everyone does this. In fact, I'm sure they do. You start off thinking, "I got this," and somewhere along the way, you lose your grip. For me personally, I get lazy. That's my problem. I love the concept of staying organized, and keeping track of all my notes, and using a planner. I realize its importance, I do. But it only takes one time. One "It's only one assignment, I'll remember it" that leads to "I remembered that one assignment last week, I'll remember the date of that exam and to turn in the notecards and the review guide, and then that rough draft for that other class" which ends with "Why don't I do schoolwork anymore? Surely I have something due tomorrow. How did I oversleep again?"
    I think another part of it is I lose my positivity. When the weather starts looking darker, and cloudier, and windier, and bleaker, so do my classes and my chances at doing well. Last semester was a big bummer for me. I made the Dean's List, but before you go getting excited, I started with five classes, and had to not drop, but withdraw from two. I've never withdrawn from any of my courses before, and this past Spring I withdrew from two. I cannot let that happen again.
    Some of you have already started school. Some of you started a week ago, some this past Friday, some today, and some (like me) tomorrow. But it's still early. Here is my proposition. Let's keep the positivity going. Keep a hold of the organization, and the productivity, and the planning, and the proactivity. Keep it going as long as possible. For some of us, it's our last semester (like my buddy, Hannah - you go girl!), or our last year (like me, I hope - psh, who knows). Go out with a bang. And if you still have a while longer (like I may if I can't fit everything in), don't drop the ball. Think of how great you'll feel throughout the semester without the added stress of "did I have something due today? Where did all my pens go?"
     Now I can't help you keep track of your physical stuff, but I found an app. I'm terrible at using planners, I really am. I try every semester. I buy them, fill them out with everything I know at the beginning of the semester, and then don't look at them again until I'm panicking four minutes before my midterm and I've written nothing else in them. But this one. I used it all last semester and it really saved me. iStudiez Pro. Yes. I paid for it. I downloaded the free version, and loved it so much I paid for the full. You have a calendar, and you can keep track of different classes with different colors, and quizzes and tests and finals and assignments and notifications and reminders and it's wonderful. I wasn't paid to advertise this, or review it or anything. I just found it useful. And maybe you will, too.

How do you keep organized and proactive during the semester? Tell me in the comments!

The Big Girl Bow

Listening to Pusher Love Girl, JT. Don't worry, though. I still love That Girl. I'm just trying to break the streak.
In the mood for some iced tea.
    So lately I've been kind of obsessed with wearing bows. Thank Beth and her little DIY tutorial here. I made one (only I hand-sewed mine) and then fell in love and made two more. I have one big polka dot one, a medium sized red one, and a tiny black and white if I wanna just clip back my bangs (which I'm growing out, so they're driving me mental). I really want a big blue one so I can wear my hair like this. Don't judge me.
    One of my favorite ways to wear it is half up and half down, with the bow in the middle of the back of my head so it's loose. Wearing these bows, I feel that there's a fine line between looking chic and cute, and looking like a four-year-old with a giant bow on top of your head. I have enough trouble looking like I'm younger than I am; I don't need to exacerbate the problem with an ill-placed bow. So here's a tutorial for wearing The Big Girl Bow, and rocking it. (N.B. I part my hair on the left. So if you part your hair on the right, do the opposite of what I tell you for the curling process.)



Click to enlarge.

1) Brush your hair. Duh. But really, since we're using a flat iron, you do not want to flat iron tangles into your hair. They're a nightmare to deal with after that.
2) Part your hair into two sections, from the top of your ears...
3) ... to the center of the back of your head...
4) ... and twist the top section so it'll be easier to secure.
5) Take a big alligator clip (my mom used to call them that, am I the only one?)...
6) ... and clip that top section out of the way.
7) Now separate the bottom into left and right sections and our prep work is done!



Click to enlarge.

1) On the left side, take a 1-2" section (the bigger the section, the looser the curl), and curl it under with the flat iron.
2) Move slowly down the section with the flat iron on medium heat, with your wrist flipped under, like my wrist here.
3) This curls the hair towards the face.
4)Finish curling the left section then spray. I like Aussie's Mega Finish Hairspray. It's still flexible and touchable and it smells like Pez.
5) For the right side, take the same sized section, but this time flip it up and wrap the hair over. Because you're using the same hand on the opposite side, if you flipped it under, it would curl away from your face, not towards it. Bizarre, but there you go.
6) It's slightly difficult to see in this photo because my hair is dark underneath, but it's curled towards my face.
7) Finish the right side, and spray again.



Click to enlarge.

1) Now take down the top section and separate it on your part. For me it's on the left.
2) I like to curl the underneath towards my face, and the top away, so on the left, we're going to flip it up this time.
3) ... And away from the face.
4) Since I have a ton of hair, and there's way more on the right side, I separate it into two sections - a front and back - and clip the front up with the alligator (mine's missing a few teeth. ha. haha.)
5) for the right side, flip it under, and it will curl away from the face (the opposite of what you did underneath on this side).
6) See? All flipped away.
7) I take one or two sections at the crown at the back and flip them under as well, and give 'em some hair spray.



Click to enlarge.

1) Last section! I'm starting to get a little loopy here. Curl the front section, flipping it under as well, then spray.
2) If you have bangs, like me, hold them up like so...
3) ... and part them at a diagonal to get the most natural layering of hair (rather than in vertical or horizontal sections, or all in one section - do not do that unless you want super flat bangs).
4) Flip them under just like the rest of the right side.
5) See how nicely it flips back away from the face?
6) After you've curled each section of your bangs (my sister Maggs would kill me if she saw this - she goes to Toni&Guy, and evidently, they're called fringe), which is about three sections for me, spritz them and run your fingers through them to break it up.


Click to enlarge.

1) Now, the fun part! Run your hands through the curls to make them looser.
2) Flip your head over and give it a few good shakes.
3) Look at this adorable bow!
4) Separate two sections at your temples...
5) ... pull them to the middle of the back of your head and secure with the bow!
6) Now grab your brush...
7) ... And brush both sides...
8) ... to make it even looser.
    And voilà! Rocking that bow like the awesome big-girl you are. ha ha.

What do you think? Will you be wearing a big girl bow soon?

________________________________________________________________________________

Products Used

• Aussie Mega Finish Hairspray
• Revlon 1" Titanium Stay Smooth Hair Straightener

 

Engaging

Listening to the rain outside. Flood warning in effect for my area. ha ha. Weather Channel humor.
Craving some strong black tea.
    So I guess I should mention that Corey and I got engaged. I'm a little late, and I do apologize, but this time I was actually hesitant to blog about it; I didn't just forget. I wasn't sure I wanted to share the whole story since it's very personal and special to both of us. But I thought really long and hard about it. I have quite a few blogs that I follow closely, and when you consistently read someone's thoughts and opinions, you feel like you know them, even if you don't personally. And I would be bummed if any of them withheld such a big life event from their faithful readers. So I'll just give the short version and a pic or two to keep all five of you in the loop.

    I knew it was coming sometime this year, I just didn't know when. He'd started asking what kind of rings I like, but to be honest, I was expecting it around the Fourth of July when I'm going up to visit him. I was not expecting it to happen at the beach with his whole family. He asked me to go with him to find his brother Bretticus and his girlfriend Robbie who had gone down to walk on the beach. What they'd actually done is go and hide to take pictures. The whole proposal didn't go entirely as planned, but nothing ever does for us. For goodness sake, we got the flu right before we went down to Disney World this Christmas.

    It was super cute and unexpected and perfect for us, and he managed to keep it a surprise the whole time we were down there until we actually started walking down the beach and he started acting all nervous and goofy. Then I figured something was up, I just wasn't sure what. Maybe a picnic on the beach for dinner? Nope. Proposal!

 

Movement and Letters to Inanimate Objects 2/8

This is in the Grand Floridian. Awesome!

Listening to Comfortable by John Mayer
Thinking about what to make for dinner (since that's my responsibility now that I've moved out)
    For those of you who skimmed over the little "listening to/thinking about" section - shame on you! - I've moved out! I'm living in a house forty-five minutes away from campus with three friends, and it's frickin awesome. Just sayin'. My room is small, and currently dominated by boxes and pieces of my bed.
    Why is my bed in pieces you ask? Because our local Ikea is moronic. They left out the majority of the pieces for my bed in the packages we got. For example: the very first piece we needed to make my bed? Long board with a crescent type cut out in the middle of one side? Missing. The first piece. Really? Also, the head and footboard. (I do have a separate headboard with storage in it that we bought and built separately; these are the back and front pieces of the platform.) How do you forget to put those in? We did finally get all the pieces, but my dad can't come help build it until Thursday - that is, tomorrow - so tonight is my last night sleeping on a mattress on the floor, and I couldn't be happier.
    Sidenote: my bed is the kind with drawers in it, because I don't have room for a dresser and bed and desk and bookshelf in my room. So we combined two. Well, I currently don't have a place for all my clothes, so I've been living out of boxes since Saturday. I feel like a hobo. I hobo who no longer lives with her parents, but a hobo nonetheless.
    Here are some letters!

Dear Ikea,

Get your crap together. Your level of disorganization is astounding. I was so angry upon finding yet another piece missing from my bed that I wanted to go to your store and jump on every neatly made bed you had on display. I wanted to put fingerprints on all the stainless steel stuff, and leave my food on the table in your little cafeteria. And leave my chair out for someone to trip on. And my cart in the middle of the parking deck. 

Dear Bertolli frozen dinner,

I really wish I had known I needed a pot to cook you in and that you weren't steam-in-the-bag. I was so dismayed upon finding out I couldn't have garlic shrimp and pasta for dinner on Monday. But those weren't tears. Really.

Dear e.l.f. mineral make-up,

You are the greatest make-up I have ever used in my life. I just got your mineral eyeshadow yesterday, and I am never going back. This love affair isn't going anywhere, so get used to it. It's gonna be a good forever. :)

Sincerely, 
Sarah Jane

Things At Which I Am Pun-Skilled

from here

Chilling out to Waltz of the Snowflakes by Tchaikovsky, from the Nutcracker (Yes, I realize that it's no longer Christmas time, and that I'm also not "chilling" as the high today was about 65 degrees and it's January, and there isn't a snowflake in sight. Welcome to Georgia.)
Once again unable to sleep.
    Here's the deal, my little bloglets (I don't mean the diminutive form of "blog"... more of a cross of "blogger" and "Piglet." Don't judge me). I haven't gone to bed at a reasonable hour since last year. I don't mean that in a joking "it's only January, so it wasn't that long ago" way. I mean, for the past month I've laid staring up at my ceiling until 2:45-4 a.m., desperately longing to fall asleep and unable to do so. A month is a long time to survive on very little sleep, people. Yes, I have tried taking things like Benadryl and Advil P.M., and drinking herbal tea, and not doing things on my computer right before I want to sleep. For the most part, the most active thing I do before bed is read a book, and I know from the experience of falling asleep while reading in the past that this is not something that would keep me awake.
    Truth be told, I think it's stress. What I'm stressing over, I have no idea. My semester's going smoothly, work is fine, and the process of moving and getting to know my new roommates and Haley has been one of the most delightfully easy experiences ever. So why am I not sleeping? The answer remains illusive.
    So here I am, at two a.m. completely bushed, and not able to fall asleep. My solution? Blog! If this whole thing makes no sense, you now know why. Here are 5 things I'm not good at!

1. Sleeping. We've been through this.
2. Waking up on time. I feel this is sort of a cause and effect thing. I don't sleep, so I don't wake up. There you go.
3. Being prepared for things, like class. I'm actually getting better at this one this semester - I've been prepared for most of my classes these last two weeks. Other than not having my books yet, but I had ordered them, they just hadn't arrived. Not my fault. :)
4. Eating healthy. Another thing I'm improving on, but still not perfect. I eat healthily at work, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday need some help. I'm feeling some Chick-fil-A in my future. Bright side: the closest Chick-fil-A to my new house - which will henceforth be referred to as the SHAM-house* - is about ten to fifteen minutes away. Because I'm a lazy person, I'm hoping my laziness will override my love for Chick-fil-A. I know this is improbable, but here's hoping, right?
5. Working out when I really should. Yeah, I know what those of you who know me are saying: "You don't need to work out - you're skinny!" So what? Skinny people are still unhealthy and can get sick because of weak  immune systems and poor diets. Trust me; I know from experience. Luckily, my favorite way I've ever worked out is ballet, and there's a perfect banister at the SHAM-house to use for barre work. I just have to get my lazy butt up to do it!

    After all that negative, here are a few things I am good at: Puns!

• At work the other night, I made a dorky joke (when don't I?) and my co-worker Jessica said, "You are so corny." I replied, "What are you talking about? I'm a-maize-ing! Maize! Like corn? Corny?" Yeah, I probably didn't need to explain it, but I felt it necessary since she couldn't see me spelling "a-maize-ing" in my head as I spoke it. 
• I met Johnny and his girlfriend - who is all kinds of awesome - for a late lunch on Friday, and Johnny, skinny white nerd that he is, made this hilarious pun: "I'm so g I'm almost h." I feel like someone might have made that joke before, but based solely on my obnoxious guffaw when I heard it, you'd think otherwise. 
• On the same day, Johnny's girl Tori announced, "There's a hipster in the house!" So I said, "At least it's not a thigh-ster." Ha.

* Have you noticed I'm totally into asterisks right now? They're so freakin' fun! So, SHAM-house. It's from the initials of it's inhabitants: Sarah (Jane), Haley, Allison, Miranda. It was either SHAM or MASH. And we decided SHAM-house sounds like SHAM-WOW, so we liked that better.

Confession Time

from aceshowbiz

Listening to Finger Snappin' by the Maynard Fergusen Octet
Trying to be a better, more successful, more organized human being
    Warning: The following post is long winded. Brace yourself.
    Here's the deal. I love concepts. And ideas, and theories, and notions. I think of lots of awesome ones all the time. Then I write them down in random lists that get stuffed in my purse or under my bed or in my desk or thrown in my car, which - let's face it - is a Dumpster with an engine and an iPod cord.
     I love concepts, but I am so bad at seeing them to fruition. Let me clarify that. I'm bad at seeing them completely to fruition. I'm great at starting things. Finishing them, not so much. Which is why I have an entire art shelf full of beads and stones for my jewelry company, string for my super-awesome macrame bracelets, paints from my ambitions to become an artist, and a bowl of shells - I really don't even know on that one.
    That's also why I frequently wake up with just enough time to jump out of bed, into whatever clothing is at hand and speeding like a madwoman to class. Every semester, I think, "Nine-thirty. That's nothing. I've made it to work at eight before plenty of times. A nine-thirty class is pie." Thing is, at the beginning of the semester I think I can eat that whole pie by myself. In fact, I get to class early a few times, eagerly devouring those first bites of sweet cherry pie morning goodness. Then I start to realize that I don't really like cherry-flavored anything. Why did I like this pie? The filling is just too sticky and sweet and it glues me to my bed, and I still have three-quarters of that stupid pie left, and did I realize how much it tasted like Robitussin when I first started eating it?
    Where was I going with this? Oh right. Finishing things.
    There are only a few things I have completely finished in my life. I know that sounds really sad, but this is going to be motivational for me, and you, my dear readerlings, are my witnesses:

• Last year, I knitted myself a matching hat and scarf set. The most I've ever made was baby booties, and I can only use a pattern once or I get bored with it and don't want to finish it the second time. This year, I knitted one for Coco Bean, who has yet to receive it.

  

  The blue hat and scarf are the ones I made. The black one on my sister is crocheted, and I didn't make it.

This is Corey's hat. The pom-pom is removable, and mostly a joke. Because I like to laugh.

• I finished learning an entire jazz piece by Vince Guaraldi - improv and all - and can now play it without pause. In the past, I would learn the parts of the pieces that were more straightforward, and say, "I'll get to the improv," but I never did. This September, I learned the whole dang thing. And yes, I am very proud of it.
• I wrote a book. No, it is not published yet, and no I haven't submitted it to be published, or queried an agent. I probably won't for a while. I'm still convinced it could be better, but that's not the point. The point is that I finished it, and even though I've been working on it for three years, I still love it as much as the first day I brain-birthed it in Anatomy my senior year of high school. Which means I'm still willing to put work into it to make it the best it can be before I send it out into the world. (See Anne Bradstreet's The Author to Her Book. Major poem love.) I even have ideas for other books, two of which I've been steadily working on, and I fully intend to finish both of them, too. 
• I wrote this super fun intermediate level piano piece that changes time signatures like mad, and bounces along in a way that always makes me smile. I guess I should've prefaced that by explaining that I've actually written quite a few piano pieces for my mom's students' recitals, but this one was one that had been marinating for quite some time, and when I finally got it out, I was actually really proud of it. The other ones were my mom saying, "Write a piece for [insert munchkin pianist here] that sounds like clouds/a hoedown/evil clowns under your bed," and I'd sigh dramatically, even though it would be easy, and write it. This one wasn't inspired by anything, and doesn't have a name. It was just me playing with a melody in my head. So I'm proud of it.

Those are the things that immediately come to mind, but there probably isn't much more, unfortunately. That being said, here are the things I want to accomplish this semester. I'm putting them here so that I'll be really embarrassed when... I mean if I don't accomplish them, which should spur me to complete them.

1. I want to be nicer to people. Smile more, and be more grateful for what people do. I try to do this anyways, but I have a temper, I'll admit, and sometimes the temper sort of vomits anger and irritation on anyone in my path. This tends to scare people off. A few of my friends at work - Tyler and Andrew - have joked with me that the reason I'm not dating anyone is because I'm not a (pardon the language) "bad enough bitch". They say I need to act like "I'm a bad bitch and I know it." But the truth is, I'm not. I'm almost always a happy person; I love to laugh and make people laugh. On that note, my laugh is super loud and dorky, I bounce around when I get excited, and I don't have a problem with that. I'm a huge dork, and proud of it. So my efforts are going to go towards being more of the fun, silly, dorky person that I think God intended for me to be and know that I'll date someone who appreciates that whenever he comes along. (I don't know how this went from be nicer to people to wait for whoever God has planned for me, but I think that means something important. So I'm leaving it.)
2. Try really hard to understand and do well in Statistics. At the beginning, things were easy and I was like, "Yeah! I'm gonna dominate this class!" And then Statistics rose like a sleeping tiger and said, "Psych! Watch me slash your butt to ribbons with my VARS claws!! Ha ha!" and the first test was a bit of a stinker. Now, math is not by any means my thing. I swear I'm a little dyslexic with numbers, although I was never diagnosed. I can't tell you how many times I miscount my drawer at work because I forget that there's a twenty-three between twenty-two and twenty-four, or I read the total as "71.36" when it's really "17.89" and the customer freaks out. And today in Stats, man my calculator and I were having some communication issues (I've got a letter for it for later on this week). 
3. I want to finish editing my book. Really badly. I have no idea if it will happen, since I have a massive amount of writing, reading, and analysis to do for my fiction writing class, but I want it to. Writing really is my passion, although I have recently accepted it is probably not how I'm going to be making bank in the future. But I do want to pursue it on the side at the very least, which I cannot do if I don't finish the thing. Getting a good draft of my next book down wouldn't be bad either, but I'll take what I can get.
4. I'd love to be on time on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, so that I can bathe and look nice, and have coffee and not want to kill myself because I haven't been awake long enough. Doing all of the readings for my American Lit class wouldn't be bad either. I do some of them, I promise, but when I was reading Walden (sorry, Thoreau) I about plucked out my eyeballs. And I need them to read the sixteen - yes, sixteen! - books that I've begun and not finished and are all piled on my dresser. So this one kind of counts as two.
5. Not complain so much at work. For the most part, I'm a pretty happy, loud, and nice person at work - I'm not going to say anything about my work ethic, because that's for others to say; this is just about attitude - but when I get in a mood, people can tell. I've been told that I complain about my problems a lot, and that I'm always down on myself (although not in a depressing way, if that makes sense - more like, ha-ha-my-life-sucks-but-I-laugh-about-it). That's not what I want, though, or what I mean to do. I don't need to unload my problems on my coworkers, or let any stupid useless emotions get the better of me, so I'm going to try very hard, and pray that I'm not a burden on anyone and that I can work with a joyful heart. Kinda goes with number four, but you get the picture.
6. I want to do better at saving my money. In the middle of this summer I had nearly enough money to move out with three roommates, but it fell through, so I ended up just spending the money (on stuff for school, mind you, but spending it nonetheless). I will be flying up to North Carolina to visit Corey over Thanksgiving (even though I'm terrified of plane flights), and I need to have money for the flight, and also money to spend while I'm there so I'm not a burden on him or anyone else. And after that, I want to look for an apartment and roommates (any takers? I'm super fun to live with *cough cough*), so I'll need moneys to move out. 
7. This one's a bit more difficult, but try not to stress so much. Whenever I get stressed, I get tense, and irritable and my immune system crashes (like this past weekend, and um, now). My back and neck get super tight, and I literally cannot relax. Even if I'm laying in bed, sleeping, my body is still stiff and tense, and I sleep so hard I'm physically sore in the morning. I've been seeing my chiropractor for the past four weeks, and - although I haven't seen her in a while - she said my spine should be realigning properly by now, and staying that way, but it's not because as soon as she finishes adjusting me and I leave, the stress sets in and I start to tense up again. I know that's not a healthy way to live, so I want to make a conscious effort to stay more relaxed and not let things get to me so much. I've only got one life to live and I can't live it wearing my shoulders as earrings. 
8. Actually post my blog posts on time. Like, choose days of the week to post and do it, gosh darn it!

Sorry for those of you who read that whole thing - there probably aren't many of you left at this point. So here's something to make you laugh, because I laugh every time I see it. :)

A Coffee-Fueled Cleaning Frenzy

Listening to Hello Seattle (the remix) by Owl City

Drinking a mocha latte from Starbucks (which is actually pure happiness in a handy to-go cup)

    Brace yourselves. I cleaned my room.

    And my definition of clean has changed from "making a semi-clear path from the door to my bed that may or may not cause you to fall and break something" to "actually putting things away, clearing out all the trash, and making room to use my desk as an actual desk." Those of you who know me personally know what an extraordinary feat this is. Yes, I still have stacks of books all over my room - there are five on my dresser, two on my desk, one on my bedside table, and so many I don't feel like counting them all on my wire rack by the door, but personally I see nothing wrong with having more books than my bookshelf can hold. 

    In my future house, I intend to have numerous bookshelf-lined walls, completely full, and at least one shelf full of my own books. Or maybe just one room with bookshelves on every wall, and a big comfy chair for reading, an electric tea kettle, a desk by a window overlooking whatever fantastic view my future home surveys, with the most well-oiled spinny-chair in the history of home office furniture... 

    I digress. This post is not about my future home and rooms, it's about my current clean room, and the massive success I've had in organizing it. 

    So guess what I've got? Before and after photos, so you can share in my rejoicing! Indulge, dear reader:

First off...

 

 Then, I took on my desk and the rack beside it. I can't tell you how much crap I threw away. (Actually I can. There were three full-to-bursting kitchen-size trash bags.)

Next came the wire rack that's beside my door. 

Notice the alarm clock in the "after" photo. Now I have to get up and cross the room to turn the darn thing off!

Then came my bedside table...

I got rid of the old alarm clock which didn't match my room at all, and added a Reese's (which has since been eaten).

Last came my dresser, which I'm super proud of. 

Who knew I had so many different perfumes! I only really wear one of them.

I even put all my pretty pillows and the throw on my bed, just for this post. 

My bed will probably never look like this again.

 And all of this was fueled by my little friend, Mocha Latte (which is funny, because up until about two weeks ago, I hated coffee. Then my friend Emily made me a mocha at work, and I fell head over heels). I now know why no one seems to be able to function without coffee. I was also sort of irritated at the time, so the mix of coffee and frustration was the volatile kick in the butt I needed to totally dominate my room.

The love of my life.

Perhaps, with the help of coffee and irritation, I can pretend I'm a functional adult and actually get things done.