The downer of deaths

Earlier this week, my father informed me someone had passed away. Nick Figaro, a 35-year-old Greek Orthodox man, died of heart complications that he was unaware he had in his bed, in his parents' house.

I know of him because a GBN physical education and health teacher, Beth, married him at my church and my father performed the wedding. I never had Beth (called Ms. O before she was married/to most of my class at GBN) as a teacher, but we became very friendly with each other after she got to know my dad through her pre-marriage classes and Chrismation. When I was home in October, I even met their daughter Sloan, who is a little shy of one year old, and Nick's mom at the Homecoming parade.

Hence, when I received this call, I still got the chills that such things happen. Imagine being the parents of a 35-year-old and hearing your son died. Imagine marrying the love of your life, envisioning a future, and that person dying just two years later. Imagine thinking of how to raise a child of one year who will now live without her father living and raising her. It makes me cry to even think about it.

I attended the wake with my family, and came across a lot of my former GBN teachers. I saw the entire GBN physical education department and a lot of district administrators who I haven't seen in awhile. But the awkward thing about visitations and wakes is that you don't go greet these people as you would in a normal setting. You might exchange a glance of sadness, but there is no chatting or catching up. That is put aside out of respect for the person who passed away. It doesn't matter how school is going, someone's class is or how things are with their family, what matters is that both of you are paying respects to the family of someone who just died.

And that is how life goes. You live, watch all of your neighbors, family, friends, old acquaintances and classmates do the same, and then they die. Some early, some late, some past the time you are living. And you have to live knowing that you don't know the last time you will ever see some of these people. Or one of the only places you'll run into those people you never see and never expected to see is at such depressing events. I didn't quite realize this until I was there that day. I have to sadly think that the next time I will see some of those teachers is at another funeral. But I can fulfill my thoughts knowing that I am on good enough terms with them to exchange a glance and empathize with what they are thinking, without even needing to speak to express our feelings.

What can be deduced from this is that you have to live every day to its fullest and maintain positive relationships with the people you know and love, so this is always the case where and whenever you see them. It could be at Walgreens or at a store, at a restaurant, walking by them in a mall or at a park, in a classroom, or at their funeral. You never know when that last day will come. So always say hi, always be pleasant, don't hesitate to be nice....because you don't know what the future will bring.

People will die, unfortunate things will happen, and life has to move on. Beth will have to be a single mother, the daughter will have to grow up without her father and the family will always miss their beloved brother and son. But all we can do is remember that the last time I saw Beth before this tragedy, we had a great conversation and were happy to see each other and talk. So when I saw her at the wake, a hug of comfort was exchanged. And that feeling of comfort is what will mean the world to someone someday.

I have experienced at this at many funerals and wakes in the past couple of years, as well as Nick's this past week. Some would say that my high school and middle school graduating class was not the lucky one. In middle school, Marco DeVito and Tommy Whang passed away; at GBN- Jenny Snyder passed away; just a few months ago, Lizzy Seeberg committed suicide after being sexually assaulted by a Notre Dame football player, and her parents cannot even charge that player with anything due to insufficient evidence that will prove something.

So remember to be positive and don't be afraid to demonstrate your care for others, because you don't know what will come next.

Merry Christmas from my Mizzou families

Finals week can either be the best or the worst thing for college students. Depending on your schedule, you have so much free time you don't know what to do with yourself, or you study, study, study. With no exams or class work from last Wednesday until this Tuesday, I took advantage of the holiday spirit with some friends and relaxed this past weekend.

The Magic Tree is lit by a man in Columbia who used to have it in his yard, but it was moved to a shopping center lot this year due to too much disrupting with his neighbors. As seen below, it's quite a nice photo spot, and as Kathryn titled it, our Mizzou family went and took photos together!

Sherman, Kathryn, me, Kate, Laura, Shaina, Amy and Andrew
Just for kicks, taking a picture by the "Hannukah Bush" across the field. The Jewish friends are in back, and the suitemates are in front :). It just happened to work out that the four girls who lived together freshmen year are close friends, and best friends with four Jews. No one has a problem with their religion by any means, it's just ironic. We constantly make jokes about being outnumbered in certain situations, but here it is even! The woman taking the photo was kind enough to wait for the lights (which change colors!) to be blue, what a nice citizen. So Merry Christmas and a Happy Hannukah!
Since we luckily went on one of Columbia's warm, 45 degree nights, the eight of us exchanged our Christmas presents in the gazebo near the Magic Tree and watched other group of friends take photos of themselves! Precious.

At the House of Chow for Shaina's birthday dinner! We just can't get enough of each other.

Now....onto my Phi Mu family!

My pledge family had a nice dinner at my "grandma" Cassie's house, and stopped by the Magic Tree on the way home! Me, Stephanie, Shelley, Dani and Amy :)

The new Executive Board at our chapter advisor's house for a holiday dinner!

I hope this post gave you some Christmas spirit and I'll be writing more over break and after my two final exams!

My 100th Blog Post

I feel unfortunate to say that although this is my 100th blog post, it won't be incredibly exciting. Why? Because my life is not very thrilling right now. I survived my first semester of sophomore year! Classes are officially over. I am in Columbia until next Thursday with absolutely no agenda besides studying for three non-cumulative tests, and going out to dinner with various groups of people every night.

Being in Columbia, or any college town for that matter, without having a strict schedule of classes, homework and activity meetings is one of the weirdest feelings ever. I feel like when you're at school, you're at school to work, so when I'm not working I feel like I have a problem. I watched an entire season of Gilmore Girls in less than a week. I had one evening without a meeting or plan for the night, and I got so impatient just staying around the house that I went Christmas shopping at 10:30 pm just to be productive. I have a problem...it's fine.

But cool enough....I have kept up with this blog. For all of you who doubted my ability to blog after returning to Facebook, I did it. And I love it. So much that I created another blog. And update them both very often (once or twice a week is considered often to me in the collegiate world). And nothing makes my day more than when my friends comment (verbally and in writing) on my blogs. I'm happy to have enough people I love that somewhat care about what's going on in my life to even skim this for pictures, read my revelations and process what I say. It's an outlet for journalists to practice writing opinion-style without being published in print, and I like that.

One of my theoretical goals to add to that list is to categorize my blog in a more organized manner. I've seen cute ideas like Sara's "Wish List Wednesday" and more, and have the categories of updates and revelations. But sometimes, I just have something to complain about that I've learned something from, which I call rants. But I hate how unprofessional the word 'rant' sounds. Complaint is not much better. And sometimes, they are just lessons that have sprung from a so-called 'complaint' or 'rant,' but what word describes that?

For lack of terminology, here's my rant of the day: I hate it when people ask for notes from a class they do not attend. I always have, because who am I to give you notes. Here's a mythical conversation that describes my perspective on people that ask for notes.

Desperate one: Hey! Oh my gosh I've just been so busy and everything that I didn't have time to get to that class the other day....you take really good notes, can you just e-mail them all to me?

Person that attends class: So you want ME, who didn't have time either but actually got out of bed and WENT to class, to send YOU what I processed from class, because that's fair how? I take my time and effort to try and learn material, and you want me to just hand it over to you?

Person making lame excuse: I'll bribe you though!

*Side note: this has actually happened to me. I received an e-mail offering me gourmet chocolate and candy for giving her notes for a class. People can get pretty ridiculous.

Ethical person: Well this is getting even more ethical! Now you realized that you made a mistake, and just won't own up to it!

Bad note-taker: I guess I can just ask someone else....*thinking remorse will somehow come of this*

Class attendant: That's a good idea. *the bad note-taker gets disappointed.*

The only circumstance in which I will now trade notes is with my best friends, who honestly know when we were sick (I get it now, I can say I've had pneumonia and had to miss class) or attending something more important (like a Missourian tour for another class...good planning J-School) that forced them not to come to class. This is new criteria for me, but for the best. You would think that college students get more responsible as life progresses, but sometimes it's the opposite. They try getting around things as much as possible. They don't prioritize their obligations. And the people that are considered responsible in one aspect of their lives must suffer the consequences of other people's poor decision making? I don't think so.

This is one part of my "learning to say no" life lesson in terms of unnecessary remorse, as I have started realizing that people who don't care about class don't deserve help. And if I've learned anything in life, people try to pick at and get around your morals. One person joked about how they take bad notes and if I could just e-mail them all of mine, that would be great. When I laughed, they became concerned and realized I wasn't stupid. Sorry hun! Another person just came in my room while I was asleep to get my notes. Tricky tricky. I hope later in life, everyone realizes they can't just depend on other people to do things for them. We are all people with brains, power and our own work ethics, and if you don't apply you full potential of those attributes, then you will not succeed. The end.

Holiday season!

After a long week of doing a lot of nothing, I finally left the house on Friday! Cautiously of course. My sorority was hosting a holiday-themed party, and I could not miss out on an opportunity to wear Christmas decor! Patricia's sweater has been very helpful for "Ugly-Christmas Sweater" parties, and I wore it with my red tank top, jingle bell earrings from Kate last year and jingle bell hair tie!

I really was feeling better, and you hit a point after being locked up inside so long where once you're any bit of better, you have to interact with the world. I've never been happier to socialize. Here are some pictures!

Shelley and I's big-little picture!

Kathryn, Jamie, me and Katie at the social!

Kathryn and I with Santa!

Even though it seems like this happens often, it really doesn't.

All of my friends are in the same place at the same time,

and we're smiling and getting along! Yay!

After the social, all of our friends typically met up at AEPi. It was one of those evenings where a few of us realized how deprived we are by not living together. It's the hardest thing ever when you know that some of your best friends are down the street doing the same thing you're doing, relaxing in the comfort in your room, but it's too much effort to walk over just to say hello. Or lug your computer and books over to do homework there. So we're all going to live together senior year to relive the memories :). It was nice to spend some weekend-night time together and just enjoy each other's company.

Saturday, I got back into scrapbooking mode and watched an entire disc of Gilmore Girls. I miss that show so much. I'll probably bring my DVDs back to school, which can't be for the better, consider I'll have a different workload starting my journalism sequence next semester. It was the most relaxing thing to enjoy Lorelai's humor and laugh at all the jokes just like I used to, and I look forward to not working winter break so I can scrapbook the past two semesters and catch up on some Gilmore Girls while I do it!

Since I have gotten so much sleep this week (although it was all necessary and none just felt extra), I was able to get through today which was a more normal, back-on-schedule day. I went to church, worked on an accounting project for hours, received an award for being the Relay For Life steering committee member of the month after three hours of Relay work and finally headed home! The most exciting part of my Sunday though: church. We had a hierarchical Divine Liturgy, meaning a bishop was serving, and the bishop was Archbishop Demetri. Since he's the chancellor of the Chicago branch of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, we know each other pretty well from him visiting my home parish, so it was a surprise to see him and his assistant in Columbia. But they were ultra nice to me, so much that I got to sit at the special lunch table after church, was introduced to some new parishioners, the PK treatment that I only receive in Chicago! It was fun.

Now off to complete my last few real assignments due of this semester, YES, IT'S ALMOST OVER! What a semester.

Presenting...a professional blog!

One of my goals has been to create a professional blog to use to send to potential employers, places I apply to internships and people I want to give a more business-look of myself to. So...here it is....my Wordpress page!

What I've learned in the process: Wordpress is a lot harder to use than Blogger. I am so glad I made a blogspot page first and learned how to use 'widgets,' HTML code and more on here because it took awhile to figure out Wordpress. Also, I hope you enjoy the snow falling down the page, I know it's not incredibly professional....but it's not like I'm applying for anything now, and it only goes until the end of what Wordpress defines the holiday season...January 4.

Enjoy the other blog, add it to your favorites if you love me, and I will still be posting here so no worries!!

Sadness is called pneumonia

When I was in high school, I used to pray that I would get sick for a day, or even get mono, so I could kind of just pause life. Many people reminded me that it would not necessarily be a pause, but more of a falling behind, but in the high school life....that's not entirely true. I wished this so badly because not only did I never have a break, but I don't get sick....ever, and everyone around me always does. Friends, sisters, my dad, they get sick all the time....but me, never. Except at very inconvenient times.

I only missed one day in three years of middle school, and it was a field trip to see a play that I actually wanted to see in eighth grade. The only other 'common time' for me to actually be a sick and weak human being was the morning before Easter, so I was already out of school Good Friday, why waste another day off of school when I can be sick a weekend I'm already ultra-busy? So pretty much no sick days in high school either. Now onto college.

After a busy weekend in Kansas City, I was definitely sick. Friday, I even took pills. Saturday, I took a two-hour nap while my friends socialized outside. Saturday to Sunday, I slept for 12 hours straight at Laura's house before going back to school. And upon arrival back to school, all I could do was sleep and shiver, so I slept through Monday. Monday afternoon, the student health center tested me and determined that I had a mild type G strep throat, so they gave me some pills and I slept and took those. But Tuesday, it had been nearly four full days of being pretty sick and my fever was still 102 degrees. Not good. So Shelley and Jen drove me to Urgent Care. Where after a flu test and an x-ray, I was told I had pneumonia.

Pneumonia?!?! Really? Yes. So what have I been doing this week? Laying down in my bed and sleeping. Coughing. Drinking water, propel, gatorade. Swallowing more pills than I have in my entire lifetime. That's about it.

I can't even focus on watching TV or a movie. On Wednesday, I woke up at 12:30 pm and thought, wow, what am I going to do all day?! Well, it took me until 5 p.m. to work up effort do do anything. So yes, now I know what it's like to be sick. It's not like I can do homework or get anything done, because you feel that bad that you can just do nothing. I couldn't even eat. From Saturday to Wednesday, all I consumed was two oranges, a sip of soup and a pack of Welch's Fruit Snacks that took me two days to finish. I'm finally onto a semi-normal eating schedule.

Sunday through Tuesday was when I was at my weakest, with 103 degree fever and essentially no energy. I couldn't check my computer without help, could barely respond to texts and calls and couldn't move from my bed or reach anything that wasn't on my desk. It's definitely nice to be mobile again, and the next 12 days are going to throw me off with three more days of class, a ton of days of nothing and three final exams. Two non-cumulative and one writing exam. So it should be an enjoyable finals season celebrating the holidays with friends, knowing I can't be any worse than I was this week, and studying for some exams.

Don't get as sick as I did and have a good weekend!

Thanksgiving break

Lesson from Thanksgiving: Never eat Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant. The tables will be cramped, you won't all fit at one or even two tables, you can't control your portion size, the waiter tries taking away everything a minute after you touch it, you argue over the check, just don't do it. I had a great time playing with Lena and sitting at the kids table though, ha.

The Artemas Family

The Stornello children with Maria, Eleni and I

Later that night, I got a really massive headache (worse than usual). It clearly wasn't from the food, since I ate very little from entertaining Lena so much. I thought I'd solve it by taking a nap on the couch before Black Friday shopping with Eleni at Wal-Mart at midnight. Still in pain upon waking up, Black Friday seemed like the most viable option. $225 worth of Christmas shopping done, plus these matching shirts for my sisters and I! Success right? I woke up pretty early the next morning to fly to Kansas City.

Friday was pretty nice, as I was welcomed with some nice surprises on my flight. I was expecting some type of Mizzou population because the Kansas rivalry is a popular game, so not only did I see a GBN graduate who attends Mizzou on the flight, but also the chancellor of the University and his wife! I recognized them at the terminal and approached them to say hello. We talked for about 10 minutes outside, and they ended up sitting in the row right behind me on the plane. It was a nice family feeling we all had :).

Laura picked Andrew, Kathryn and I up from the airport and we headed to where we were staying in Shawnee, Kansas. We caught up and hung out like the exciting friends we are for quite a few hours, and didn't head to Overland Park to pick up Asher until past 7 p.m. We went to the Plaza with its holiday lights for a nice dinner and some phenomenal shopping at Forever 21, which was a nice way to keep us occupied with a two-hour dinner wait.

Andrew, Asher, Laura, Kathryn and I on the Plaza

I even took pills to keep me alive for the day, which is ironic since I'm one of those crazy humans that believes the majority of pills are placebos and that they are a waste of money and faux medicine. So after roaming the Plaza, we had a lovely dinner at P.F. Changs and headed back to Kansas. For those of you who don't know, Kansas City is on both the Kansas AND Missouri side, separated by the clever "State Line Road." The city itself is gorgeous and very classy, a great place to live as a young adult (an apartment downtown, which is on the Missouri side) or with a family (in which case you want to be in the nicer Kansas suburbs). So we headed back to shop for our well-planned out tailgate at 8 in the morning and get some rest before the big MU-KU game...the purpose of our trip.

We got to Arrowhead Stadium nice and early for the game, and took a mini-van with seven students and a TON of tailgating supplies. Between a cooler, chairs, table, grill, food and more, our bodies barely fit in the car, but we were cheap teenagers who didn't want to pay $26 more for our comfort and parking confusion. We had a nice morning before the 11:30 game, and walked in to see zero Kansas fans and a pretty packed stadium of Mizzou fans. It was almost embarrassing how they had NO student fans show up. But we won 35-7, and my friends had great seats so it was a fun game to watch.

After the game, we went back to Kansas again, just to get ready to go to dinner at the Power & Light District of Kansas City. We watched some more football and then actually got a good night's sleep before going back to school in the morning! It was a great Thanksgiving break and despite my current state of illness, I was not too exhausted from my traveling. It's always nice to spend time with friends in exciting places, cheer on your school and see family over a break. Now, to see if Mizzou goes to a Bowl game and if we can do it all again!