The world is out to get me week

It all started when I was reading Glamour magazine. Helen, Meredith and Stacey were over for the last moon bounce night, I had a good first day back at Fridays, made good tips, then I went back to my lazy summer schedule of reading, seeing friends and working.

The Glamour health and body section started off by reading as follows:

If there were a pill that could...slash your chance of getting breast cancer, help get rid of headaches, cut symptoms of depression almost in half, lower your risk of type 2 diabetes by 50 percent, improve your body image, make you fall asleep 40 percent faster, and help you lose up to a pound a week...would you take it? Well, there's no new miracle pill, but research shows you can get all these benefits from 30 minutes of daily exercise piling up!!!

I was persuaded. Not that I was inactive before, but I craved the daily exercise. I walked the first day, rode my bike the second day and rollerbladed the third day. It was 80 degrees out, I threw on a pair of shorts and took off toward the Glen lake path. Part of me wanted to swim and just jump in the lake, but I decided to challenge myself to go up the big hill Irina and I have skated down before. I got to the top of the hill and looked down, because you naturally go down really quickly and have to watch out so you don't run into anyone at the bottom. I looked down and saw two walkers, figured I could get around them and started skating down.

Halfway down the hill, I looked down and saw some sand and rocks on the pathway. Not only does that make it a little more rough, but there was a large pile at the bottom that at my speed, I couldn't get around. I went over them and tried to balance, but wiped out on my left side shortly after. My elbow, knee and left hip were scraped, my right wrist was bruised, and my left arm and wrist just felt completely twisted, numb and turned-around. The walkers and another man came to my rescue and carried me, my phone and my iTouch which all landed on the ground to a nearby water fountain to rinse the scrapes off. My mom came and pick me up, where we proceeded to the doctor's office then the ER for x-rays.

Now while this sounds like normal procedure for most accidents, I've never sprained/broken/fractured anything, so this process was pretty new and shocking. The doctor wrapped me up with a brace and some bandages and the x-rays showed a fracture but due to legalities, they couldn't tell me if it was 'broken' until I went to the orthapedic doctor.

I just kept thinking, wow, my life is coming to an end. How am I supposed to waitress/make money for the next month with one arm? Type? TEXT? Do ANYTHING in Mexico? I wasn't going to be that employee that makes the next month's schedule get redone because of something small, especially when I wanted to be working.

The orthapedic doctor appointment the next day confirmed that my left wrist was broken and they put a cast on my left arm :(. What a feeling. They said it should only be on for a month though and they're going to try their hardest to get it off before Mexico!! And, if work let me after liability, I can work with the cast!!! So after a not-so-eventful White Sox game with Helen (except we enjoyed ourselves at the Stadium Grille Buffet and in the rain), I slept for 13 hours and went to work with a huge headache. My manager told me I could work and they'd understand if I can't do as much so I did the whole one-handed-waitressing thing haha. Another experience.

So basically, the world is out to get me because I missed the cutoff for 2 As in place of A minuses by .1%, broke my left arm, broke my glasses, have no motivation to do anything productive and am just overall lazy. I'm comfortable chatting online until 2 a.m., which is just useless most of the time. I enjoy catching up with people, but I could do that during the day! Ah.

Well, I hope you come visit me at Fridays so you can watch me serve as your crippled waitress!! Below are photos of my bruises and cast, exciting, right?

Freshman year memories

Without explanation, here is a list of my freshman year memories as brainstormed with friends on the last night. This is more for me to keep track of, but if you're reading this and from Mizzou or talk to me enough on the phone to remember my stories, you might giggle :).

Freshmen year memories

· Pledge pin

· Halloween week

o Trick or treating

· Flat branch dinners

· Formal date drama

· Jank/Laura easy buttons

· Family dinners

· Funny exchanging glances

· Andrew drunk

· Relay for life

· Magic tree night

· AJ foreign stories/Andrew quotes

· Trading beds

· Balloons

· Dejavu

· Kansas City/Chicago trips/STL weekend

· U of I visitors weekend second semester

· Meeting Trevor to get to U of I

· “when have we ever worried about being too feminine?”

· music exchanges

· michelle FB statuses

· eric hucker instances (who the hell is it? Andrew video)

· glee parties

· Andrew rustic mill fountain/Walgreens run

· Shaina & I single in one night…

· Long walks

· Shaina and I in the fountains at Stephens Lake park

· Basketball ticket pickups

· Miles photoshoot at the trail

· Ilife video

· Kaleigh alarm on iTouch siren alert

What I'm trying to do this summer

Goals of what I'm getting done this summer

Proposed trips:

-Washington DC to stay with Kara

-U of I with Helen to visit Elena & Alicia

-New Jersey/New York to stay with Thea Stephanie, Kira & Sophia

-Cincinnati to see Yiayia and cousins for the Pipefitters picnic

-San Diego after being in Tijuana in Project Mexico

Things to do around home:

-Go to grad parties

-Glee concert and DePaul's fest with Ludacris/Guster

-Go to a press night (tomorrow?)

-visit Robin and Betty from Phi Mu in their apartment downtown!

What to accomplish while I'm at home and not working at Fridays:

-scrapbook 2nd semester

-finish online history 1200 course

-see friends!

Whoo! Let the busy-ness begin!

Back home thoughts

I officially returned home around 1 pm on the 15th, and it basically felt like I flew home. I slept through the entire car ride with the exception of a fruit and yogurt parfait consumption at McDonalds in Bloomington, Illinois (haha) and just woke up at home. As the moon bounce was being put up (for those who don't know, we rented a moon bounce for Eleni's Sweet 16 and other fun parties), I unpacked a bit and started my reading of the mail/publications around me.

In the infamous Northbrook Star, credible Pioneer Press journalism *sarcasm*, one of the first articles I saw was about a Glenbrooks District board member being upset that the musical, Rent, favored GBN and was inappropriate. Really?? Not only was this upsetting because of all things to complain about, why complain about music department politics? But also, her arguments weren't based on anything credible. She read an article in GBS's newspaper quoting some GBS music teachers and decided the musical was in favor of GBN and inappropriate.

I know as a college student I'm not supposed to get involved in things like this, but it's just bad journalism. So click here to see my comment/letter to the editor at this ridiculousness. She didn't contact anyone from GBN or have any sources of credibility. Good job Pioneer Press, and school board woman. Yayy to suburban drama! The play Rent is supposed to be appropriate and have all suitable content...right? Dumb.

After a good start to unpacking, I got to see Jessie and Kalyn and catch up/jump on the moon bounce as awesome college students. Upon walking outside in the middle of the Torch (newspaper staff) 'party', I have never felt so old. All the sophomores/juniors were just having a great time running around in our backyard, bonding, eating baked goods, fruit trays and chips, and I can't say I was jealous. But I was depressed. This regressed me to every never see you, Halloween party, Torch bonding, choir class group, peer group or just best friends bonfires and large gatherings held in our backyard.

You can't just do that after graduation. If I were to send a Facebook event or invitation for all of my high school best friends to come over and eat and chat (nonetheless, jump on a moon bounce) for a fun evening, as fun as they would all think of it individually, no one cares about each other anymore so nobody would come. Unless someone was serving, no one would come. And so this being old feeling was disappointing because of that, and just reminiscing to my friends having those good times. Sadness :(.

Also, I was one of those people (and I guess, still am) whose pet peeve it was to see older graduates walking around. My pessimistic thoughts were either 1. stop living in high school, 2. where are your friends? and 3. let the young people have a good time because you already did this. Like with Ow! serenades. Ow! came to serenade the Torch group/Artemas house (our 6th serenade potentially?) and it was sad because none of my close ones were there besides Kenny, Nathan and Ian, and they were just so little. And Ben/Judd weren't there. My optimistic thoughts about older siblings were "Wow, they must care a lot about their younger sisters to stay here for this birthday party/not go hang out with their friends." So not that judgments matter, but I hope people looked at my presence in that sense and not in the way I would have if I were their age.

Today (meaning Saturday), I had a productive unpacking day and fun morning with Lena, Dean and Drew. Kids are exhausting, but having a moon bounce in the backyard is a great source of entertainment. And a Wii. Lena's getting older, smarter and adorable. Then, I just cleaned out my entire room/wardrobe again and actually got rid of a lot, managed to pack for Mexico (leave a month from tomorrow!) and upload pictures. Helen, Stacey, Meredith and I hung out at Eleni's Sweet 16 and I felt old again watching all of her friends be cliquey. Some of them look up to me though so that's a pretty cool feeling?

Fun, productive and exciting past two days...who knows how things will go as I get into the swing of Fridays waitressing again, as my friends work their 9-5 jobs downtown and feel like adults and as everyone returns/departs/etc. Pictures below!

(left) the old people, (right) the large group with Ow! after their serenade

Goodbye Mark Twain

The last few nights in Twain were depressing, but well-lived. We started off Wednesday night (after both of my finals were over, relaxation!!) with an appreciation dinner with the J&C Community Government and PAs (peer advisors) with community funds, having a nice dinner at Addisons. It was really great to catch up with the PAs and see them as real people instead of just employees on your floor. I think our group really got lucky with four of the best students on campus who could provide so much for my living environment and am so glad I know all of them as well as we do. Thanks to Max, Shane, Amy and Lindsay, who are in the group picture below. The board plus Shaina and Laura are on the right :).

Thursday was a lot of packing up and doing the lasts. The pictures below are what I will always think of as the Twain girls and my current best friends--Kate, Kathryn, Laura, Amy & Shaina--at the last supper in the dining hall and at Dejavu. The office party went well in my opinion, we took 15 people to Dejavu for the 4 comedians that went that night and had a fun night listening to them/hanging out and dancing together.

The Twainers that came- Alex, Miles, Kyle, Sherman, Andrew, Laura, Kate, Kathryn, Shaina, Amy, and our favorite building on MU's campus to the right of course

We ended the night pretty symbolically in my opinion. After stopping by AEPi, El Rancho and Taco Bell, TBell which was actually out of chicken, beans, beef and cheese....(ironic), we sat in Shaina and Danielle's room reflecting upon our year and creating a Twain blog. It was amusing to me because that's where we conversed in the beginning of the year, and with such an interesting turnaround, still where we got to end it :). Shaina went to bed around 5 am and we moved to mine and Kate's room, also a normal place to end, where the 518-519 suite and Sherman and Andrew slept very preciously. For 20 minutes before I left haha.

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My mom came around 7 am and Laura, Kathryn and I went downstairs sadly. Had to take a photo by the Twain sign, because I'll miss it so much, and we took one last suitemates photo. It was sad to go home and I will miss all of my Twainers and Mizzou-ers so much!!!!! Love you guys and thanks for a phenomenal first year of college!!!!!!!!

Freshman year is coming to an end

Although I just got home, I actually began this post at Mizzou and never published it :)

The end of the school year was very depressing and as happy as some college students are to go home, I wasn't at all. It's sad to leave the people you have lived with all year and say goodbye. Our proposal was to push mine and Kate's beds together and end by sleeping in one bed, and close to that happened but you'll see that in a future post.

The last week began with Phi Mu initiation of the spring pledge class. It was very nice to appreciate such a ceremony as an initiated member and I look forward to seeing them in the future! It was held at the house instead of a different location so it was nice to see an entire chapter in our kitchen.

Shortly after, room picks began. Kathryn and I were the only two sophomores to successfully receive a two man room in the house and will be living in room 303 (3OH3!?) next year! We want to make street signs for our hallway on the 3rd floor and are very excited!

Reminder: I'm going to write a book about all of the public reactions to Kathryn Jankowski's sneezes. Here are only a few of the funny stories since she sneezes so loudly:

-In the middle of an Economics 1051 exam and the entire class laughed

-When she was about to sleep during my nap and ran out of the room

-In WalMart and women at the register started laughing

After Sunday, I had some free time before my two hard but non-cumulative finals. There were two late night breakfasts, one at Memorial Union and one at Mark Twain, where it was nice to see everyone last time in a gruop setting. It's kind of sad and awkward because it's not like college has yearbooks so you kind of end on a random note with acquaintances/people you live with unless you approach them or tell them the awkward phrase of "See you in the fall!". I wonder if that implies that you don't want to talk to them over the summer, or just you know you won't besides on Facebook news feed. In high school, when you say bye, you know you are bound to see those people around over the summer, but with college people in an out-of-state school, you just won't. You have to put forth effort to keep in touch with who you want to, and while I realize that, I feel like a lot of people get that hit at this point in their life.

That being said, I'm excited to keep in touch with my close friends not only via text/phone/Skype/Facebook/this and more, but with our Twain memories blog we made. I'll link that post soon, but below are some photos from the last few nights in Twain!

The pool was like the Bellagio...everyone was sitting around it, red cups floating around, and just hanging out enjoying the sun! On the right was our last Hu Hot dinner.

We had the luckiness of getting to go to Quinton's bar on the roof! A lot of Phi Mus showed up!

On the left is our storage unit. How adult-like we feel :). Mike and I are outside Macaroni Grill on the right and he is being a typical college student taking to-go loaves of bread to have food for the last week haha.

How upsetting does the room look with all the photos taken down?! Shaina, Kate, me, Kathryn, Hannah and Amy are having one last chill night before finals begin.

May begins!

Hello my readers! There is plenty to update you on since the end of April and since both Mom and Maria have visited in the past two weeks! Stories will be told in photos, but I am at school for 9 more days and couldn't be any more disappointed to come home :(. The past 2 weeks have been uber-busy filled with exams before finals, Phi Mu things, random events, initiation into NRHH (National Residence Hall Honorary), becoming Team Development Chair for Relay For Life and more!

When Mom got here for Phi Mu moms weekend, we did the typical and took a photo by the fireplace! After a dinner at a very Columbia-like restaurant Addisons, we saw Ben Bailey, a comedian who hosts the show Cash Cab, at DeJavu! The next evening, she took the Twainers out to dinner along with Kathryn and her mom, Brenda. The four of us are on the right and our mothers and the Twainers at Mackenzie's Prime Steak House are on the left :D.

The next morning, we had a nice brunch at the Tiger Hotel. After running typical mother-daughter errands, Patricia returned to Northbrook after a rainy weekend in Missouri and sure enough, the weather got better next week. Ahhh, but it was a lovely weekend!

On the right, I supported Delta Chi's philanthropy by pie-ing Matt Rocchio in the face! What a great way to raise money :P!

Then, I became a mother myself!! Half kidding. Rachel Field in Phi Mu's spring pledge class is my little now so during Big-Little Week, I made her the gifts on the left! I was revealed on Friday afternoon and then we took some family photos! On the right is Rachel, me, Shelley and Cassie...a family with a great grandmother! How awesome!

Here are our extended family pictures :)!

Then, Maria decided she liked me. Or at least enough to pay $120 in Megabus tickets to come visit Mizzou! She loved college life and hanging out in the dorms and with my friends, and hopefully had an awesome weekend!

Saturday night, as an ambassador event through Mizzou Student Foundation (MSF), I had the huge honor of attending the Jefferson Club Dinner at the Mizzou Alumni Association (MAA). The Jefferson Club is an organization for individuals who donate over $25,000 to Mizzou in private donations and contributions, so it was an honor to meet and sit at a nice dinner with such people. Someone in MSF described this as a dinner for the people on our campus who have buildings named after them, and he was right. I saw a nametag for Mrs. Rollins, met Mr. & Mrs. Thomas & Nell Laffere who donated Engineering East, and saw multiple other common names popular around Mizzou.

Not only did being here give me another nice magnetic nametag, but I also got to be at the unveiling of 3 new notable alumni on the wall in Jesse Hall and a convocation for new members of the Jefferson Club. Here, I spoke to and met the 3 notable alumni added to the board: Ron Powers (who was the keynote speaker of the night, J-School alum), Jerry Caulder, a scientist who now resides in California, and the brother of Larry Smarr since he could not be present. It was awesome to accompany such accomplished individuals and I greatly look forward to attending this in the future!!

Stopping by AEPi's beach party!

Nikki, Melanie, me, Kathryn & Danielle The ultimate awkward photo