Keeping Classes Organized

Listening to The Vince Guaraldi Trio
Preparing for ten days of zero contact with Corey
    I am so ready for fall, guys. I want that crisp, cool fall air, and the leaves blowing around on the breezes. I'm tired of being hot all the time. And I'm really tired of my car breaking down (four times now, in the past week) and the air conditioning not working. I want sweaters, boots and scarves. That's why I'm listening to Vince Guaraldi. He wrote all the Peanuts music, and I listen to him all autumn and winter. I'm breaking out the Trio so that cooler weather better be on the way!
    I'm pretty proud, though, y'all. Three weeks into school and I'm still organized! I've started procrastinating a little, but I finished a whole book for Tuesday yesterday and I'm pretty happy with that. I've been doing something different this semester as far as my notes are concerned, too.
    In previous years, I'd take notes on loose leaf paper, stuff it in that first flap-sleeve thing in the front of my binder, and then forget about it. Then, when the test came around and I desperately needed all my notes to cram (usually the morning of) I had to frantically search through a two-inch-thick stack of papers to find the notes for the right class, then spend ten or fifteen minutes attempting to put them in chronological order so I could keep all the info organized in my brain. (There are, like, special codes for remembering things in my mind. Chronological order seems to be one of them.) This wasted at least half an hour of my early-morning cram time, and we all know how important that time is.
    This semester I'm doing things differently. I have one two-inch binder with five dividers. I have two spiral bound notebooks in which I take notes. I title each page with the class name and the date so I never have to worry about "which class was this?" and "what day did we talk about that?" I don't worry about organizing it during the day because typically, professors start talking as soon as I sit down and I don't want to waste time between classes when I'm normally booking it to my next class. I don't even think about which notebook I'm using. I just keep both for the heck of it. Any loose paper that's handed back - tests or quizzes or papers - I put in that inside flap-sleeve in the binder.
    That sounds like a modified version of my past rifling and huge pile of papers, but here's the catch. I don't leave it like that. First thing I do when I come home at the end of the evening is sit down with my notebooks and binder and tear out all the notes I've taken. This is a great time to go over what I wrote down, think back to the lecture or discussion, and do a quick run-through of the class. That means less study-time later cause I've already gone over it once. It's good to do this the day of the class while it's still fresh in your brain.
    Remember all those papers that were handed back? I take those out and go over them, too. If it's a test or quiz, I look at what I got wrong and the professor's comments. If it's a paper that needs revision, I do the same thing and may even make a few cursory notes to myself for later. Then, I hole-punch them and put them in my binder in their respective dividers along with all the notes I tore out of the notebooks that day.
    It sounds kind of time-consuming, but so far it's really helped me. I've already remembered much more from previous lectures than I have in the past, which gives me hope for my coming exams.

Do you have any systems for keeping your notes organized? I'll take all the help I can get!

Just Another Ordinary Day

Listening to Ordinary Day by Vanessa Carlton - remember her? My sister Maggie and I are kind of on a Calrton Kick. (Side note, end of the music video for Pretty Baby? Creeptastic.)
Devouring Andes Mints like there's no tomorrow. 
    I know. You thought I'd be gone for good, didn't you? Well, I almost was. But I know y'all can't live without my semi-monthly brief life updates (catch the sarcasm there?).
    Lots of stuff has been going on - like COCO GETTING TO COME HOME TWO MONTHS EARLY. Yeah. That happened. And also school started, which has been coco-puffs coocoo. I only have four classes this semester, but one is a hybrid. And that hybrid happens to be for my first education class. Ew, right? (Speaking of, that's another thing Maggie's gotten me hooked on. I've started doing it in everyday conversations then cracking up.) My other classes are British Lit. beginnings to 1660, which I have with Moose if y'all remember me mentioning him once way back here (we're good buddies now, despite what either of us predicted initially), Econ, and Latin 2001. Yay, dead language.
    I did a good bit of shopping yesterday and hopefully my new order from e.l.f. will come in soon and I can share my experiences with them. In the meantime, check out these cute ankle-zip jeggings I got from AE.

Yay!

Peachy

Listening to What A Girl Wants Soundtrack (Yeah, the Amanda Bynes movie. You know you loved it.)
Craving Chick-fil-a - what's  new?
    I know, I fell off the face of the earth. Again. I've been a bit busy. But on the bright side, when I have time, I've been working out with my bffl Suzie-cutes, and I even signed up for classes yesterday - right? I do have to meet with my adviser this coming Monday or Tuesday to officially change my major to English Ed, and hopefully get into one more class if he has mercy on my procrastinating soul, but aside from that I'm set up for a busy semester! I recently had some stuff done to my foot which put me out of the loop for a week or so, and had to get the same thing done again this past Monday, which was no fun, but with luck this will be the last time. In between those two incidents, of course, I got sick. But things are looking up!
   I was doing so well, you know, with the whole Wordy Wednesdays thing, but I've got something to make it up to you - a recipe! I know, right? The queen of Chick-fil-A in a kitchen? What is the world coming to? But it's really yummy and summery, and get this: healthy. Stop the presses! Sarah Jane is becoming a health nut! ... Well, not so much, but I'm trying to do better. So here you go: Homemade Peach Frozen Yogurt!

All you need (for one serving) is two peaches, a small container of vanilla Greek yogurt, sugar or sugar substitute (I prefer sugar because Splenda isn't really good for you at all and Stevia just doesn't cut it for me. Plus it's only a teaspoon. If I'm doing sugar I'm doing it right.), and vanilla extract. Plus, you know, a freezer and a blender/food processor.

The vanilla isn't in the photo because I had to go buy some. hee hee.

Step One: Peel both peaches.

(Or ask a grown-up to do it for you! Nick Jr. anyone?)

Step Two: Slice into thin wedges and freeze for an hour. (I promise the wait is worth it.)

Step Three: Put the peaches in your blender/food processor and blend a little to chop them up. You may have to let them thaw a tad to get them out of the bowl, or if you're lazy like me, microwave for twenty seconds.

Step Four: Add half the container of Greek yogurt, one teaspoon vanilla extract, and one teaspoon sugar.

Step Five: Blend until smooth. You may have to stop and stir periodically. Frozen peaches are stubborn little things. 

Step Six: Enjoy!

Super easy and super delicious! Plus it's not super unhealthy! And I'm sure it would be delicious with other fruits. Maybe like pineapple and mango? Yum!

Pun-believeable

from Poetry_and_Sound on iconator.com

Listening to Vince Guaraldi Christmas music. I'm starting early this year, guys. I got a taste of fall last week and I am not letting go. Bring on the candy corn. 
Not sleeping because there's a full moon and that's when the werewolves come out - kidding. It's really bright and it shines in my window because my blinds were lost in a tragic jumping-on-the-bed incident a few years ago (read: last year) so I can't sleep.
    I went pun-crazy this past week, guys. "Crazy-pants," as my friend Hannah Cynthia Lane says. I had some help, of course, but my oh my did I make some jokes. Here are a few to tide you over until I get all my Letters in order (they're scattered among all my school notes).
    [When discussing my steak with my friend Johnny]

• Me: "I want my steak rare!"
• Johnny: "That rarely happens. ha ha."
• Me (this one was completely unintentional): "HA! Well done!"

    [Discussing my American Literature professor]

• "He was still barking on about Hawthorne." Get it? Because a hawthorn is a tree? Barking? Laugh, please. I beg you.

    [Background: Did you know that Ralph Waldo Emerson had a son named Waldo who died, and this death and the death of his wife were highly influential in his writing?]

• "Where's Waldo? DEAD." Sorry, that one was a little harsh, but I found it morbidly funny. 

    [This one was in a note to my friend Hayden during American Literature]

• Alright, can we be done with Hawthorne and move on to Poe?
• Professor: "Now, you read in the Poe story..."
• Yes!!
• Professor: "But when you look back at Hawthorne..."
• Quoth the professor: Nevermore.

    Side note: I'm trying to be more organized this semester, guys. I'm trying really hard. My room is all clean and pretty, and my books are all organized. I even bought a planner. I'm still trying to get my blogging schedule worked into my school-work-homework schedule, but it's going to happen, I promise! 

Why I Can't Be a Functional Adult

Listening to You and I by Ingrid Michaelson 
Wondering why I can't manage to make better use of my time





A functional adult I'll never be
This one fact I could almost guarantee.
The sound of my alarm on deafened ear
Grows louder every moment, more austere, 
Until, as Fate intends, I jolt awake, 
And wonder if a shower I could take
And still be timely to my morning class,
If bathing right away I should not pass.
While tardiness, I know, is impolite,
I fear if wandering eyes on me alight
Without a chance my hair and face to paint,
A simple glance may cause them to feel faint.
Unconscious students would cause more disrupt 
Than my belatedness, howe'er abrupt,
Instead of ugly-caused chaos create,
I'd rather shower and be slightly late.


Two reasons more that timely I'll not be
are due in part to time discrepancy,
For of the six clocks which each day I read,
Not two of them the same time are agreed. 
My bedside table clock's a minute slow, 
Meanwhile the stove top clock through time does blow.
The worst, perhaps, in terms of tardiness,
Would be how far my car's clock does digress,
For while it is four hours far behind, 
To be eight minutes fast it seems resigned. 
I also tend to underestimate 
The time from home to school to navigate,
As well as mastering the central deck,
For parking there is somehow still a wreck,
And though the signs to park or leave are clear,
I manage every time from them to veer.

Now, to end my temporal swings
From tardiness to missing things
A writer's life is one for which I'll wait
For each night spent with pen and ink
Would mean a day to sleep or think,
For on my own clock I'll operate.

And now, to procrastinate...