Fitting Things into the Day

A few things about today:

It seems that Thursdays have become my cleaning days. Last Thursday I ended up cleaning up my room because I felt ashamed of how messy it was when my mother saw it. I know. Ridiculous. Then again, I think I cleaned it just for myself because I always feel so much better in a neat environment.
Honestly, I don't understand how it can get so messy so fast. Just a few articles of clothing on the floor make it look like a train wreck.

You know what's more awkward than being in the other room while an argument is going on? Having that argument be in another language. Oy. I rushed out of there as soon as I could, which isn't fun when it's your own apartment.

Speaking of the apartment, I have no idea what I'm doing for a living situation next year. With study abroad, I'm going to be gone a term. I've been told that they have great ways to get roommates (like rooming with someone else who was in the program, for example), but now I'm nervous. Gaah.

My schedule is getting busier. Yah know what? I'm glad. I like to keep busy. It makes me prioritize my time a lot better. Still have a bit of trouble with that at times, but slowly getting better.
As far as my schedule went today, I had a lot of little chunks of time in between everything, and not one big long one. I think I like having a longer break better than a shorter break now that I think of it. You don't feel like you're rushing, and you can fit more things in during the long break.
 On that note, let's talk about a moment I had today. I was talking to someone else who also happened to have a pretty hectic day. I mentioned that I had gone on a run and she replied, "Wow, I wish I had time to go on a run today."

That led me to this thought: I don't see if I have time for runs, I make time for runs. Running is a priority. I make sure I run at least every other day. If I take off anymore than that, I feel wrong somehow. I'm not quite sure, but I believe the last time I took two days off from running was December 2010. Yeah. I plan for runs. I make sure I have time to do them. I will go somewhere sweaty and gross if I have to, but I'll get that run in. If I know I'm not going to have anytime to run on a certain day, I change up the day I do that run. Can't run Thursday, and my last run was Tuesday? Run Wednesday. Just make sure you do it.

Finally, I have one more running thing to talk about. I know, I know. Lately my sister and I have been talking about how expensive races are, yet we still want to train for something. So with that, she has decided to map out a half marathon race for us both, and whoever wants to join us in about two months. I'm excited to have something new to train for. I have to admit though, the farthest I've ran in the past few weeks is five miles. Man, that kills me. Hey, but the whole point is that I've been running, and it's never less than three.

Welp, time for a new day. Friday is going to be the complete opposite of today. Only one class. Ah.

Do you prefer a lot of mini breaks or one long break?

Easter and Mondays

Oh, what a delightful weekend. I love a weekend where I can do social things with friends and do holiday things with family. Best of both worlds.

How was every one's Easter? Mine was quite nice. It wasn't due to a huge event or anything, it was just relaxing. The weather got to the low 70s and everyone kind of napped. Sometimes lazy day are the best.

...Until you realize your homework is going to take a lot longer than you thought, and you're not getting back to your apartment until the evening.
Eh, still worth it.

For this term I've realized that Mondays are going to be my busiest days. I have class from 10-4, with a couple little breaks in between.
I know. All of you working folk out there are laughing at me or scowling at me. I'm just not used to it though. Like I said, I have to get back into the flow of getting work down before anything else. And I'm actually getting better at it! Better, but not 100% perfect. Eh.

The point is I like starting out the week busier. The slowing down as the week progresses is nice, and makes the weekend that much more exciting. Last term, I had Fridays as my busy days, and I know I didn't like it. I wouldn't be anticipating the weekend, I'd be thinking, "Crap I have two quizzes coming!" Now? Big things done at the beginning. I like it.

It's time to either go to the gym or get started on my 125 English pages for tomorrow. Hmm... No matter what, they're both happening tonight.

How was your Easter?
Do you like having the week start out busy and then slow down, or do you like starting off slow then build up?

Sinuses and Scheduling Conflicts

A part of my body ached during the first few minutes of my run today. Can you guess what it is?
If you guessed my tooth, you're right! If you didn't, I'm not surprised.

In my current state, I don't feel sickly. However, I've been blowing my nose constantly and I've had plenty come out. Also, according to the Internet I might have a sinus infection.  I say this because right now it looks like I snorted a highlighter, and the Internet believes that it could be caused by a sinus infection. Nasty, I know.

Back to the tooth thing. As you may know, sinuses feel pressure or sensitive when you've got a lot of junk mussing up there. Right near my sinuses obviously are my teeth. Well, one of my upper teeth sometimes feels like it's going to be yanked out if I'm bouncing around, and I blame it on the fact that it's a baby tooth. Yeah, I've got two baby teeth in place of adult teeth that never grew. I'm actually missing four of my adult teeth, but I only kept two of my baby teeth to keep my mouth slightly normal. I doubt that's a real thing, but it's the only reason I can give for my tooth hurting so bad. Hm.

I'm hoping that's also the reason my pace has been awful lately. Seriously, just... ugh. I hope that my pace is worse just due to the fact that I can't breathe through my nose.

In other news, I'm a bit... peeved right now. Is that the right word? Perhaps.
For you see, yesterday my plans were aligned nicely. From 6:00-7:00 tomorrow, I have chapter. Right after that, I was going to enjoy the company of people and pie. Yes, it's Pi Day. I get excited about it every year. After that, I was going to go to the final screening for Duck TV at 8:00. The mandatory screening.
Then this morning I get an email:

"The screening will be at 7:00 pm."

Yes. Of course. The only time to hang out with people I actually want to hang out with, you have to change the schedule.

This wouldn't annoy me so much if it weren't for the fact that the rest of my evenings are free this week. I don't know what it is about Wednesdays, but apparently all of my activities think they should happen on Wednesday.
I know. This is totally a First World Problem. (And if you hate that phrase, I'm sorry) But honestly, I'm really disappointed. I was really looking forward to the Pi Day festivities, it sounded like fun. I'm closer to the APO peeps than any of the Duck TV people. I'm hoping I can show up a little late to the screening, and pop by the Pi party for a little bit. Besides, they always start the screenings something like fifteen minutes late.

I was planning on talking about a reaction I got yesterday in today's post, but I suppose that will have to wait for tomorrow. Hopefully that last sentence wasn't confusing. It just deserves a whole post.

When was the last time you had two things you wanted to go to scheduled at the same time? What's a weird thing that happens to you when you're sick?

The Obsession with Writing Things Down

Welp, it's the weekend. Yuppers. I always get so excited, and then don't know what to do with myself. ...Then, by the time it's over I'm wondering where the time went.

I have a confession. I obsessively write things down. I think the whole thing started out with writing down my spending habits. I decided when starting college I would write down every item I would spend money on. Alright, maybe it started out with getting my debit card earlier that summer because I wanted to make sure I always knew how much I had in my account. I've heard the horror stories. Okay, I'm getting a bit distracted but know that it all started out with finances.

This thing has fallen into a river, and I still use it.

At this point, I was starting to become much more neurotic. I was (or at least student loans were) paying for this education, so I had to make sure I knew when things were due and when to get them done. Thankfully, that was taken care of with the new free planner that my school gave me. (Nice thing about smaller schools? They give you free planners. Yeah, not so much here.) If you're counting, there's currently two places where I'm writing things down.

My next planning resource came to me from Christmas. I had received a little notebook from my cousin for a Secret Santa gift. I mentioned it a bit here. I thought like most of the notebooks I have, I would start filling it out and forget about it in ten pages. I now have about ten pages left in it. I've written a lot of things in that little notebook, including:

• Information about transferring, studying abroad, and requirements for them.
• Class schedules, percentages, big assignments
• To do lists of all kinds, including some grocery lists
• Spending habits, overall money situations
• Meal planning
• Outfits I wore
• Running schedules
• Potential dream jobs, dream travel destinations, dream whatevers.

Yeah, I've used it a lot.

Recently, I've grabbed another little composition book (similar to my spending one) for scheduling the hours of the day. As in,writing down times when I have things going on so I can figure out things around it. Not like I don't have a planner, but it gives me more of a visual of the hours.

Finally, there's the OCD pages. This habit started in fall of 2010, and it involves notebook paper. Y'see, sometimes I like to add random things up. Multiple times. Like the estimated cost of studying abroad. Or scheduling classes for my college career. Be warned, you are about to see some A Beautiful Mind type craziness out of me:

Yeah. I've written on dozens of papers like this. Looking at it yourself, you probably wouldn't know what all of the calculations were. Hell, I hardly do. That's why I've written some of them over and over, because I forget which is which.
I'll admit, this is probably a bit insane. Whatever, it's how I do.

If you were counting, that's five separate things that I write in/on. I'm starting to see a little more crazy in me. Concerning.

"Wouldn't you be more organized if you wrote everything down in one area?" You'd think, but I don't believe so. Each thing has its own meaning, its own reason. The rest of my random thoughts go in the big notebook, and I carry all of these around with me 90% of the time. It may be a bit crazy, but I like it.

That's all from me tonight. Hopefully I haven't scared anyone off.

Are you an obsessive list maker? Do you write a lot of things down?

Scheduled Eating Times

One thing that has made me believe I am not a college kid is my need for food. Perhaps it sounds a little strange, but many college kids I know tend to be able to go without food for quite some time. I've had conversations where college kids have said, "Oh. I guess I forgot to eat today. Huh."

HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?

I don't know. I just don't. When I get hungry, it affects everything. Now I don't get hangry like my sister, but here are a few things that happen to me:

• Become very cold.
• Shakey
• Lack of concentration

Pretty much I can hardly think. Imagine my surprise when today I:
Ate breakfast at 9:00 AM
Ate lunch at 1:30 PM
Ate dinner at 9:00 PM

Can you figure out where I was emotionally at 9:00 PM? Just a touch irritable.

I used to be very structured on what times I ate. Thankfully I've worked past that, but not until 9:00 PM. Goodness.

One of the reasons why it's bad to get to an extremely hungry point is because you'll over-eat. Honestly today though, I didn't freak out. I ate normally. Nice.

So, who's not ready for the week to start? Just me? Alright then.

Can you go for long stretches of time without eating? Do you eat at designated times?

Getting Back To The Schedule

I keep on thinking that it's Tuesday. That's not a good way to start off the week.

Today there are a few little things I learned.

• I am terrible with grammar. I use the word anywho which isn't an actual word, but I acknowledge it. I shame myself.
• Apparently my body understands when I'm starting classes again, so it decides to wake me up every half hour after 3:00 AM until I finally decide to get up 20 minutes before my alarm.
• Hannah seems to be the only name my Theatre professor can't remember out of sixteen people. How insulting.
• Currently I'm still on vacation mentality, where being productive only happens later in the evening.
• I enjoy watching listening to people prepare food while cleaning. Hmm.
• The room in my apartment looks like a shrine to myself and running. I need pictures of other people.

One day down, four to go. It's not a bad thing, it's actually good. I mean, I'm not going to work eight hours a day. It's just strange getting on a schedule again. Not bad, just weird.

How do you feel when you get back on a schedule?

A Hectic Sort of Week

It's been one of those crazy days, you know? Anywho, here's what's up with life for a quick update, or just random thoughts:

It's amazing how much family members can effect you, mainly siblings. I've been able to convince my sister to read cracked, and now she's addicted to that and reads some blogs. As for her effect on me, most of the music I listen to is because of her.

I've realized that I spend far too much time on the computer. Not a new development, but lately it has caused some problems. (Don't worry, I'm doing all of my schoolwork.) I'm deciding to try and wean myself off of using my computer so much, possibly not using my laptop and instead use the library computer until schoolwork is done. This isn't the reason for not posting yesterday, I just didn't have time. We'll see.

Most of this week was consumed by stress of classes and registration. One night after finding out certain classes wouldn't work in the schedule the way that I wanted them to... I had a mini breakdown. It happens. However, after I let everything out, I actually got down to thinking, and realized I was perfectly fine in the way of school scheduling. It's good to clear your mind with a good pouring out of emotions because then you can actually think coherently afterwards.

My croissants were indeed a hit. That's always a good thing.

I'm making a big decision. More on that later.

I'd really like tomorrow to be a relaxing day after the last few days I've had, but that's not going to happen. What can you do? Especially since I have to cram a 9 mile run somewhere in there... Oof. That's why I have to go to bed now. So night to all, and hopefully there will be more detailed posts from me in the near future.

What type of week was it for you? Any exciting weekend plans?

Flippin' Schedules

It's that special time of year again!

Source
No, not this time of year.

It's time to register for classes. Oh yes.

One of the things that I despise am getting used to while attending the U of O is the whole system of class scheduling, and advising appointments. At WOU, it was very easy to have everything figured out for your classes. They would post signs in the walkways, indicating that signing up for classes was coming very soon. They would send you an email to remind you. You only had one advisor, and that advisor helped you with all of your class scheduling questions. That? That does not happen here.

Trying to be the responsible student, I made sure to set up an advising appointment, with the person said to be my advisor. Being on the ball, I thought to myself. However apparently, your advisor does not help with your schedule. Your advisor helps with internships and such. That meant having a drop in appointment but thankfully, they were able to see me today.
With all of this stuff you have to do yourself, it's amazing to me just because my room mate last year couldn't even figure out all of the advising stuff despite the large amounts of help she received.

Have you ever had something organized just the way you like, just to realize that one thing has to change, changing your whole set up in the process? I have, and when you're unstable due to not enough sleep the night before, it's not a good thing. Especially if it makes sometime you really want to do in the future seem even more difficult than it was before. I may have gotten testy with the advisor after learning about certain classes being offered at certain dates, and how it would affect my plans. Then again, she was kind of rude. She cut me off a lot, which personally I don't think is very nice even if you think you know what the other person is going to say.

Apparently the advising situation isn't great for a lot of people, as I've been informed. I suppose that's just what you have to deal with in a big university.

I register for classes on Friday, so I decided to organize my (hopeful) schedule for the next term. I definitely have a love/hate relationship with organizing my class schedule because I love to organize my time, but sometimes things don't fit the way I want them to. Eh, what can you do.

On an unrelated note, this month is NaNoWriMo! The other name for it is National Novel Writing Month, and I always forget it. The whole idea is that you are to write a novel that is 50,000 words by the end of the month. I always think that it would be cool to participate in, but by the time the month begins I realize that I don't have any ideas for things to write about. Then again, I'm not sure if I've ever had an idea for a novel. Comics sure, but a novel? Not really. Still, it's a very cool idea.

When did I start enjoying November so much? I've actually been really liking this month. Plus, it's already half over (almost) meaning that Thanksgiving is very soon! Hoorah!

I can't believe how late it is already. Goodness. It's bedtime for me.

Do you like planning your schedule ahead of time, or a you a more "go with the flow" type? Me: Very big on planning ahead. My high school friends: Extremely go with the flow. Opposites attract?

Weekly Schedule, Gifts and Cooking Meat

Goodness, how is it already so late? Ridiculous.

Truth be told, I tend to like the beginning of my school week more than the end. Strange? I know, but there's a reason for my madness. At the beginning of the week, I have less to deal with in my classes. As the week goes on though, I start getting busier and busier. However, usually after class on Monday, I have quite a chunk of time. Today was pretty busy though. Eh, what can you do.

Before I finally stop talking about my birthday, I want to show y'all the lovely gifts I received.

My mom and dad (really, all my mom) got me this nice running gear:

Plus, that adorable apron. I can't wait to use it! I also got a jacket and a purse from her, although the jacket was an odd exchange:

"Hey, do you like this?"
"Yeah, it's cute."
"Good, you can have it for your birthday."
Yeah, that's how she works. She likes having excuses to hit up Ross and TJ Maxx.

My sister got me two very cool things:

Tikki Masala Sauce and the metal tin thing. Apparently, it's a type of lunch box thing from India, how cool! Reminds me of bento boxes. I can't wait to use it!

Finally, my aunt got me this:

A dumbbell, you ask? That's strange. Well it would be, but take another look:

It's a clock! I saw this in a magazine maybe a year ago, and I thought it was the most interesting thing. No, it's not interesting because it's a dumbbell. It's interesting because it's an alarm clock that you can't push a button to turn off. You have to do bicep curls. This tells you how lazy I am, doesn't it? I'll try to make an alarm make me do bicep curls. I'm trying it for the first time tomorrow.

It seems the theme this year was clothing, fitness and food, huh? Speaking of food...

My hopelessness in the kitchen has been getting better, but there's always one problem I tend to run into. Whenever I'm cooking patties or a chicken breast or something, my pan always turns into a pan filled with chopped up or crumbled meat. Why? Well, whenever I'm cooking, it appears that the outside cooks, but the insides never do. Then, as a precaution, I always end up chopping it all up (Yes in the pan. I'm kind of ridiculous like that.) hence always having chopped meat. It's fine for now, but I really think a burger could be nice.

To all of you cooking out there, I have to ask: how do I cook meat and actually get it cooked all of the way through?

Welp, that's all from me. Some magazine reading is in order perhaps? Probably bed would be better.

What's the quirkiest gift you've ever given/received?

Summer Reading and Fear of Repetition

There are quite a few little things I have to talk about, so let's get started, shall we? (I've never been good with introductions.)

I haven't been participating in my self English Class Summer Reading challenge (as I like to call it) very well. However on that same note, I have done a decent amount of random reading. I read one of Chelsea Handler's books that was sitting in the garage. I'm not sure whose book it is, but I decided it was free to read. Now I'm reading a book called Paper Towns, which is a young adults novel. Seem a little odd, but it interested me due to the fact the author is part of a vlog I watch. It almost makes me feel like I know a published author. That's one of the fun things about the Internet: You feel like somehow you know all of these people. Like, it's someone you've seen in a class, even though in reality you'll probably never see these people in real life.

Today my parents asked if I would like to go see Harry Potter again. I don't want to seem like I'm less of a fan of Harry Potter fan than I am, (Geez that sounds nerdy) but I wasn't really in the mood to go watch it again. I wondered why on Earth I wouldn't want to go watch something again that I thoroughly enjoyed. Then it hit me. I hate repetition.
Now, that isn't to say that I like life changing on me all of the time. I like having a schedule, I like having solid plans. You'd think that someone who likes to have set situations in their life wouldn't despise repetition, but hear me out. All of my life I've liked going through things, trying to get them done as quickly as possible (as well as with as much quality as possible, but that's in certain situations.) When I become interested in a show, I want to go through the episodes as quickly as possible to get to the current situation. There have been very few times where there is a show I like and I haven't gone through the past episodes like a maniac. I like knowing all of the facts, and the only way to do that is to go through the entire thing. However, as soon as I'm done... I never watch them again. I'm the same way with movies, stories, events, almost everything. Also for every goal I make, as soon as I complete I start to think "What's next?" I get bored quickly, and want to move on.

Is this a good way to live? Or a terrible way to live? I honestly have no idea, but it might be on the negative side which worries me. If I'm constantly thinking about the future, how will I enjoy the current situation? If I get bored with things quickly, what type of career am I going to be looking for?
I have no freakin' idea. Geez, I mean I'm only nineteen, I don't know how to solve my late teen crisises (or however you write the plural form of crisis).

I suppose I could write more, but that's probably a lot of blather for one night anyway. Beside, I have school tomorrow... Yeah, not looking forward to that. Five more weeks...

Read any good books this summer?

Home is the Temporary Disneyland

As the saying goes, "It's great to be home!"

Hmm... There are some moments where I would beg to differ, if that counts school as home.

I ended up spending most of the day back in my hometown, chilling out with some family members. I was able to get some homework done there, but I knew that I should be getting back to the campus to be ready for tomorrow.

My thoughts were having a battle in my noggin, arguing about leaving like a kid leaving Disneyland Park.

"But I don't WANNA leave!!"
"We can come back later, wouldn't that be nice?"
"NO, I want to stay NOW! Home stinks! I'm never going back!"

The thought of hometown being a vacation baffles me. However, it really makes sense when I think about it. Usually when I'm home, I don't eat the most healthy of things. I don't have to clean up my room, or put away my clothes because I don't have enough to clean. I might not have a worksheet for some homework at the home front. Oh well! But you can't forget worksheets at campus, that's where they live.

The home front may not have princess castles or fireworks, but in my mind was my own Disneyland. Or something.

Vacations are nice in a sense that there's no responsibilities, but they're also nice because they are precious and rare. If there was more time for weekends, we wouldn't appreciate them as much.  I also like to believe I work a lot better on a schedule.

Since we're almost back to the regular week, it's time for me to say ta ta and prepare myself for tomorrow. It's already Week 8 of the quarter! I'm so excited!

What place do you think of as your temporary "Disneyland"?