2013 Year End Review

Hello dear friends! I am here once again to regale you with tales of my year. Funny, it doesn’t seem like a whole year since I did this last year. I suppose between weddings and engagements, school, work, plays, cats and the like time has a way of slipping by rather ninja-like and disappearing into the night. Ah well, it’s been a good year, I think. I’ve made some new friends, discovered new things, advanced relationships and acquired some new jewelry. c: So, without further ado, here is my 2013.

January:

I finished Howl’s Moving Castle, the book, for the first time. It was quite lovely. c: My brother let me start the second book, Castle in the Air on his nook, which was very nice of him. I started into the spring semester at Geneva, welcoming back all of my favorite people. Erin and I attempted to cook a chicken, which turned out surprisingly well. I also started in on my first Dr. Kuhns show, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, set in Colonial India. Fun stuff? Sorta, but it turned out well.

My favorite post: Bow Ties are Cool

February

February brought my very first Valentines Day with a significant other. It was well worth the 22-year-long wait. Logan wrote me the sweetest letter ever and gave me all the right chocolates. If I wasn’t going to keep him before (which I was) I was certainly going to after that! February also brought the first week end of Midsummer Night’s Dream. We fairy-ed it up and I once again got sparkles all over my boyfriend’s clothes. Good times were had by all.

My favorite post: He Did Well

March

March started off with one of the worst adventures I’ve suffered in a while. March is good for that, I guess. Due to several miscommunications I found myself getting very lost somewhere I never go for the very reason that I always get lost whenever I go there and dragged my poor Dakota all over with me. It looks like my fiance isn’t the only one who needs a GPS. March went on to hold the second week of Midsummer and the cast party which was super spectacular and brought all the chickens and new baby kitties. T’was very exciting. At the end of March I came down with my usual cold and at the same time was introduced to Logan’s extended family. Naturally these would happen at the same time. To close my beloved Grani was finally laid to rest.

My favorite post: The Usual Cold

April

April opened with Zombies on campus. I spent a good week waking at 6 to be on campus at 7 to hide from zombies in Northwood for a few hours before my first class even began. I sprinted between three buildings multiple times a day and had to be rescued from Old Main once. I was bitten on Thursday, cured on Friday and made it to the extraction point to stand half an hour in the cold surrounded by zombies. It was a good time. After a week of running from zombies I was given a new car who I named Talat. He was quite a nice car, until we were attacked from behind on our way home from a lovely day at the park… a week later. Much of the rest of April was spent nursing an aching neck and morning my latest car loss. I recovered in time for the One Acts, though and enjoyed a lovely Theater Banquet to end out the month.

My favorite post: An Unfortunate Series of Car Misadventures

May

In May my fiance graduated from college, which was very exciting. Twirly stayed with me for a whole week after school let out for wedding purposes and we threw a surprise bridal shower for my lovely Danielle the same morning as the Grover wedding. It was quite a busy day. I took Bible 300 as a summer course which was tedious but it could have been worse, I suppose. I tried to dye my bangs purple with some small success and my dear Brelyn left us for California. T’was very sad, really, but she seems quite happy out there so I suppose it’s alright.

My favorite post: Hello Summer

June

In June my baby sister graduated from high school. It happened, she’s old now. She needs to stop growing up. Seriously. I spent two weeks herding children about at a musical theater camp at Geneva. They were really great, actually, but I had to miss their actual performance due to weddings. I got to stand witness in a lovely purple dress at the wedding of Danielle and Isaac which was quite lovely and adventure filled. Dakota, Natalie and I stood guard quite a bit and had quite a bit of fun with it.

My favorite post: My Baby Sister

July

July was a rather exciting month. On the 12 of July Pacific Rim came out! It also brought my first ever one year anniversary which we celebrated with a picnic at which we forgot eating utensils, much like the date it was commemorating. Funny how that works out. The following day was my sister’s grad party, which was nice, and we actually got to go and see Pacific Rim and squee all the way home. I went on a spontaneous adventure with my little sister in which I only got mildly lost driving around Robinson and we enjoyed a wave pool and coffee and a movie that was much much longer than it needed to be. Many pictures were taken. I also went on a rather long adventure with Logan in which we attempted to get to a pool party and ended up taking an hour longer to get there due to various mix-ups in directions. This was my first non-stressful experience getting very lost. Clearly my fiance is the person to get lost with. 

My favorite post: Lists Lists Everywhere

August

August was the most exciting of all the months. To start, I went to Erie for a girls weekend with my sister and mom and aunt and cousins. It was very adventuresome and quite enjoyable. We went to the zoo and the beach and I wrote poetry in the sand. The next weekend my family went up to the cabin and for the first time ever took significant others with us. Logan and Alan got to experience the Farki camping first hand. When we got home that Sunday Logan took me to Buttermilk Falls and there requested that I enter into a formal union with him. I answered in the affirmative. I got a shiny ring and everything! There was much happiness and excitement to follow this announcement, though it took for-ev-er to get a hold of my best friend to tell her. 😛 Two days later we took the tiny blond people on our annual trip to Idlewild park. We ran around like crazy and lost our locker key which was intensely nerve racking seeing ask my ring was in the locker. It was not a good time. But we got it open and all the stuff out and it was all good. Much fun was had and that night I went out with Twirls and Ryan to celebrate her return home and my engagement and spent the first night ever in our new apartment. After that I began the moving process from home to school for the first time ever. All in all a very busy month.

My favorite post: Three Years Now

September

In September I took ALL the pictures. I managed to get through my first week of classes all right and proceeded to go on a grand adventure to Lancaster PA with my family to see the Sights and Sounds production of Noah. It was really cool, actually, but that wasn’t the best part. The best part was exploring the little town of Intercourse PA. Yup, it’s a little Amish town called Intercourse and it was really cute and quaint and had lots of nice stuff to look at. My dad really wanted to get a hat from there. There was also much goose chasing. Literal goose chasing. After that it was the Ink photo shoot in preparation for my engagement pictures. It was nice, though, to get some pictures of our little group before we started dispersing. Engagement pictures were taken all over campus which was quite exciting, and much warmer than anticipated. >.> I also found my dress. The highlight of the month, though, was my birthday surprise. I had mentioned to my roommates my dilemma of surprise birthday parties. I’ve always wanted one but you can’t tell people that because then they won’t do it because they know you’ll be looking for it. Surprises aren’t something you can request. My roommates took it upon themselves to create this surprise for me anyway. It involved many pirate-y things since my birthday is on International Talk Like a Pirate Day and sent me all around campus to find clues and do tasks and it was a truly great time. c: Basically my roommates are the best. The last weekend in September was spent at the Ren. Faire, unusually enough. We went a bit late this year, and with a smaller group, but it was really very nice. I dragged Logan along and finally got Courtney to come. It was very successful.

My favorite post: Surviving Week One

October

October brought fall break. This was the only really exciting thing about October. I didn’t do any Halloween stuff or anything which was sad. But I did have a lovely adventure collecting branches for the play and going dress shopping with a bunch of my girls and playing all the video games. I never ever thought I would be a PC gamer… and then I met Logan. And now I play PC games all the time. Funny how that works. We’ll have to see if I can get him on some console games to even things up. I also got to see a giant rubber duck! It was very exciting. c:

My favorite post: Physical Memories

November

November saw Spoon River come alive on stage with a real audience and everything. It also saw my fall cold come at the most inopportune of times: the second week of shows. I spent two days not talking at all except for my lines. It was bad. Luckily my theater family is awesome and took care up what I couldn’t handle so I could focus on my characters and also provided me with some *ahem* “cough medicine.” On with the Theater trend, later in the month I took part in a 24-hour Theater which was super intense. Me and some good friends wrote a play, cast it, rehearsed, costumed and staged it all in 24 hours. It was great fun. Stressful and very exhausting but fun. And the one act came out so much better than I could have dreamed.

My favorite post: The Pink Sock Plight

December

This brings us to December. I finished up my second to last semester at Geneva, attended my last Film Fest and somehow managed to come out maintaining my 3.4 GPA. Upon arriving home I was bombarded with cats. All three of them seem to enjoy sleeping in various spots around my room. I will not complain. I experienced Pittsburgh with my future in-laws on a very rainy Saturday and made ALL the cookies with Dad and Erin the week before Christmas. My wonderful fiance got me a PS2 for Christmas. You might be thinking, “Why would he get you an outdated gaming system? Why not the PS4 or whatever’s out now?” Listen, the PS2 was obviously the best and happens to be the console on which most of my favorite games were played. I cannot express the excitement I feel at the prospect of playing Kingdom Hearts again this semester. As soon as I get those games back. >.>

My favorite post: Ten Things I Miss About Being Home

So there you have it! My 2013 in a nutshell. It’s been a very pleasant year with many blessings and many adventures as well. But we all knew I couldn’t go a whole year without having any adventures. It’s kind of a thing that I do. Poor Logan, I hope he knows what he’s getting himself into. Well, he should by now. Anyway, Happy New Year everyone! I hope your 2013 was as good as mine and your 2014 will be even better!

 

Ten Things I Miss About Being Home

Well now, my first semester living on campus is coming to a close and I must say, I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit. The ability to get up half an hour before class and still make it there with minutes to spare is quite lovely. Having to walk all the way to the studio theater, however, not so much. But I see my best friend every day, we have long chats in bed sometimes which is fun. I can be involved on campus if I choose, go to events, make connections. It’s a good time. And I didn’t go home as much as I thought I might. Not having a ride helped that a bit, actually having an on campus life helped as well. But going home over Thanksgiving break made me realize how much I miss about being home. Coming back made me realize it even more. So here are ten things I miss about being home.

Cats – I miss my cats. All my cats. Even the one that gives me the stink-eye every time I come home. She’s kind of a sour faced cat to begin with. You figure, I’ve spend my entire life with a cat always readily available for cuddling and now I am left catless and alone in a little apartment. There was a cat outside on Sunday, actually, and she let me pet her while I waited for my ride to church. She was very nice, but not the same as my kitties. My sister has been collecting them, you see, and I have grown quite attached to our little indoor collection. It makes me sad that they don’t know me as well as they should. I especially miss our three-legged Pepper when I’m gone. He does all the snuggles, whether you want them or not.

Consistent shower temperature – School showers suck. They weren’t so bad for a while, probably because I didn’t have the ability to shave for several weeks due to lack of razors. This is where electric razors come in all the handy. Anyway, the showers here can’t make up their minds. They’re hot then they’re cold, they’re yes then they’re no, they’re in then- nope, sorry, that’s a Katy Perry song. >.> Anyway, the first part is accurate. Sometimes you can’t stand in the water without fear of burning your flesh off and other times you’re pretty sure ice cubes will start forming on your toes any minute now. It’s not a fun experience, especially if you’re trying to shave your legs. Cold water = goosebumps = unpleasant shave. This is why I got the electric razor. At home I am safe from the fickle waters of Geneva showers and can enjoy my reasonably hot water without coming out looking and feeling like a boiled chicken.

Reliable Internet – Geneva is known for it’s unreliable internet, this is a fact of life we learn to accept. You get used to it after a while, disconnecting and reconnecting every ten minutes or so becomes part of normal life. Then you go home and realize that it is not normal to have your internet dropping out and refusing to reconnect. You should be able to watch a Youtube video all the way through without adjusting the progress bar several times throughout the song. And then you come back and life sucks again because you’ve remembered what it’s like to be home where the internet is reliable and doesn’t hate you.

My Own Bed – This is a glorious thing. You don’t think about how much you like your bed until it’s taken away from you and replaced with a generic mattress which is too long for your sheets. The beds here aren’t bad, mind you, just not mine. I sleep so much better in my own bed and I forgot it was so until break when I spent all the time there. It was lovely. I miss my bed and my giant pile of blankets and the ability to snuggle in under all of them. My apartment is always hot so I never get to sleep with all the blankets. I miss my blankets.

Laundry Anytime – Laundry is tedious and kind of obnoxious. It is even more so when you have to share one washer and dryer with eight other rooms each with four or five girls. That’s a lot of girls doing laundry throughout the week. You’re lucky if you can get a slot when you actually need it. Class takes up all the time and with two hour slots in between times are awkward. But at home I only have four other people to compete with, all of whom work at some point during the day leaving me with plenty of time for laundry doing all to myself. Sure you can’t shower or do the dishes when someone’s running the washer but that’s a minor inconvenience compared with the slot system. I can also take the time to sort my clothing and wash them properly. No such luck at college. My clothes just have to suffer.

Movies with Mom – Mom and I have this thing where we watch movies in the evenings. It’s a good time. Sometimes they’re on Netflix, sometimes we borrowed them from somewhere else. Sometimes we take half an hour to go through all our options before we settle on something we want to watch. It’s a time full of chit chat and popcorn and it’s great. Sure I can watch movies with my roommates but it’s not the same and usually involves some form of partial paper writing or other homework doing while we watch, which is kind of lame.

Baking with Dad – Sure, this isn’t a thing we do all that often, only during the holidays really, but I still miss it. I never get to bake here. At school we have this tiny little baby kitchen that you can barely move in if there’s more than one person present. Trying to use the stove top while your roommate bakes cookies is a fiasco all to itself. Three or four people trying to work in the same space rarely ends well. But at home Dad and I can bake all the pies and all the cookies and have lots of space to do it in. He’s probably already started on the cookie list for this year but he always saves the candy canes to do with me and I can’t wait to get started on them.

Random Sibling Interactions – My siblings are spontaneous and unpredictable creatures. We all have a tendency to keep to our own rooms when we’re all home but on occasion our space will be invaded by someone else. My brother has been known to poke his way into my room and take up residence on the end of my bed for a chat from time to time, or just harass me from the door. Erin will pop in occasionally as well, usually with a cat. Sometimes she makes enough noise to draw me out to play. Sure, it doesn’t seem like much in the way of interaction with ones siblings, but it’s what we do so I’ll take it.

Sitting Down to Eat – Now I know what you’re thinking; “Don’t you eat in the dining hall? Or the brig? Don’t you sit down to eat there?” Well yeah, but it’s not the same. Half the time we sit in the cafe at school in comfy chairs or on short couches or on the floor to use the coffee tables. And it doesn’t really count if you’re in public. I miss going to my fridge, making a sandwich, grabbing some chips and sitting down at the kitchen table with real chairs and everything to eat lunch with my dad, or chat with mom while she looks at stuff on the internet. Or hanging out with my siblings watching the cats being ridiculous from a kitchen chair. In the apartment I eat on the couch most of the time and it’s kind of awkward as I half sink into the cushions and try to balance my computer to work a bit along with my meal. I miss just sitting down and eating for once.

So there you have it. I miss being home. I miss smelling like the wood burning stove and tripping over cats and taking consistent showers and watching a show without waiting for it to load every fifteen minutes or so and talking to my family and sleeping with all my stuffed animals and my blankets and my fuzzy robe and my comfy pants and my jewelry box. Luckily I’ll be home by the end of the week. I’ll be safely moved out of my apartment, I can actually make my bed with sheets that fit and snuggle in with all the blankets and sleep for a week. That sounds pretty good to me.

 

The Pink Sock Plight

Socks are notorious for running off. I sometimes marvel at their ability to disappear, whether they’re eaten by the dryer, stolen by gnomes or escape into some alternate dimension through a wormhole under the bed. Whatever grand adventures they might have, they are no longer in my possession as far as I can tell. Sure, they might be floating around somewhere less exciting like under a bed or behind the dressers but that is far less likely. The other thing about disappearing socks is that it’s always just the one sock, actually. One always stays behind to baffle the owner with their separation. They were worn together, thrown vaguely in the same direction, probably washed together and yet somehow only one comes out in the end. It leaves me wondering if socks just have a really unhappy relationships as a general rule and want to get away from each other as fast as possible. Or perhaps they all suffer from some sort of Odysseus syndrome and get lost or captured on some fantastic outing.

Regardless of how or why my socks disappear I never seem to be able to find matching socks. That is, with one exception: pink socks. Now I’m not going to tell you I’m one of those hyper sensitive pink haters you’ll find floating around. I have no real passion against the color pink, it’s as good as any other color, I suppose. However, I’m not really a fan of pink in most forms. I try to avoid wearing it (which isn’t hard as my wardrobe is made up of mostly purple), or using it when possible. Yet, somehow the pink socks are the only ones that I can consistently keep track of.

Is this an issue other people have? Or am I unique in my attraction of unwanted socks? Is is because I don’t particularly care if they get lost that they feel the need to stay close? I don’t know. I suppose anything is possible. All I know is that the pink ones tend to stick. I stole a pair of pink socks from my sister because they were the first ones that I grabbed. They are still in my drawer. I washed at least three pairs, all three came out. I bought two pairs in a pack of six pairs, each a different color. You know the first pair to get lost? The purple ones. Yup. You know which pairs I still have? Both pink, the blue and one teal sock. It’s a little bit embarrassing, really. Partially because I can’t keep track of my socks to save my life, but also because that’s all I have to wear. I grab a pair of short socks for gym and everyone can see the pink over my purple sneakers. It feels girlier than I should ever wish to feel, but I roll with it, considering no one in gym is going to be looking at my socks while doing aerobics.

Still, it’s a mystery. Why the pink socks? Why not the green ones, or the blue? This leads me to wonder what would happen if I bought all pink socks? Would I stop losing socks? That would be ideal, actually; if the pink socks are the only ones that stick the logical course of action is the buy all the pink socks. I doubt I’ll ever test this theory, though. I don’t think I could ever bring myself to buy all pink socks, no matter what the cause. I’ll just stick to mismatching and buying new socks as my stash dwindles. Who knows, maybe eventually my pink socks will have adventures of their own… or my other socks will get bored and come home. Either would be lovely.

 

So This is Fall Break

So this is what fall break is supposed to be like. This going home for the weekend and coming back to campus as late as humanly possibly. Interesting. This isn’t the first year that I’ve left campus for fall break, it’s just the first one I’ve gone home for. And, of course, there were plenty of adventures to be had.

I stayed on campus for Friday night because I worked Saturday morning. Thus my roommate and I had a pizza date in the apartment which was quite lovely. You’d think it would be a pretty easy date, right? Just order pizza, run down to the video store, grab a movie and the pizza and run back. Well, all seemed to go smoothly until we went to put the movie in. Instead of Despicable Me we had somehow managed to bring home Double Double Toil and Trouble: a Marie-Kate and Ashley movie. Yeah, we did not watch that movie. We managed to find Despicable Me on like, though so the date was saved! And we went to bed at 10 which is unheard of for me but not entirely unpleasant.

I’m a masochist. You should know this by now. I didn’t have to get up early that Saturday morning, but I did. Why? To help out with theater work of course. We went out to find branches for our graveyard set at 9 in the morning, which meant I had to be up around 8 to get ready. Not so bad after having gone to bed two hours earlier than strictly necessary. Still, I could have gotten so much done. Anyway, we were successful in finding many useful branches and getting them back to the theater relatively unharmed. I even got to get a shower between then and work, though packing didn’t happen and neither did the hair curling I had intended to do for my bridal appointment.

Work was uneventful as most Saturday shifts are during breaks. My mother picked my up from work and we grabbed my stuff from the apartment. Naturally, we couldn’t leave on time. Not anyone’s fault, mind you, it’s just the way we work. So late leaving, late picking my sister up and then rushing to get gas made up about 20 minutes late for the appointment, plus they had me drive. I have the worst track record driving in Robinson in the history of bad track records. It’s not safe to put me behind the wheel in that place and yet they did it, twice. Luckily I had my trusty Courtney there to direct me. The one who really knew where she was going. 😛

BUT we made it, with minimal wanderings and the appointment progressed with me being shoved in some very uncomfortable corset-type undergarments and a slip that was probably too small and then the dresses were pulled. They really don’t do all lace too much at David’s. I only tried one on and it was a bit over the top. Really over the top, actually, with like five layers to it. It was a very pretty dress, though and it showed off my collar-bones really well, but I couldn’t lift my arms with the off the shoulder straps and it was rubbing on my under arm to the point of painful red marks. A gorgeous gown, but not for me, I think. I haven’t told you about Bronwyn yet, and I can’t say too much about her as my fiance reads these blogs frequently and naturally he can’t know about her. I will say that she is perfect in every way and that I feel truly myself in her. She’s light and lace and has every aspect that I wanted out of a dress. She is the dream.

So maybe I went in not exactly expecting to find a dress, but there was a dress there I wanted to try. I mean I’d been staring at it for months before going to Mary’s so I figured I should probably give it a shot at least. I did and it was nothing special. While that part of the shopping was kind of a flop, we did pick the dresses for my girls to wear. I may have picked it long before they tried it on, but seeing as everyone agreed that it was the best dress it has been made official. However, since we went so late and went until the store closed we didn’t have time for the girls to get measured. So they’ll have to go back I guess. Which is okay, they have time. David’s is pretty quick with their dress orders. Anyway, we went out to eat afterward, again involving small adventures due to my inability to drive and managed to make it home safely! Mission accomplished! Now I get to go back and try on Bronwyn. c:

Sunday I played video games: it was awesome.

Monday I had a date! I’ve missed dates. The funny thing about being engaged is you don’t have so much time for that anymore. I mean I’m also a senior in college and that doesn’t help, but mostly when my fiance and I get together it’s for wedding planning and a quick dinner probably. Good, but not as good as a plain old fashioned date. So we took the whole day. He picked me up at 10 and we hung around with my sister’s cat for a while before heading down to see the giant duck in Pittsburgh. We wandered around debating food for a while before we actually went down to see it. It is a glorious duck indeed and there are real ducks too, which are always exciting. And I got to see the fountain which was fun. I’ve never been down there before. I think it’s funny how touristy I am despite having lived in the area my entire life. It’s okay, though, my fiance thinks I’m cute. We finally got some food then went back to the apartment to watch superhero cartoons and eat pizza. It was a really lovely evening.

And  now I’m going back. In two hours I’ll be all packed and off to run some errands before heading back to school with my mother’s bike. I’ll have to work and then probably do some homework, but in all likelihood I’ll probably play more portal. Because science. Then it will be back to school and practice and work and so on until Thanksgiving, which will be another adventure all of its own.

 

Physical Memories

I don’t know that I have any friends who enjoy getting their pictures taken. Most of them hate it, or think they look dumb in pictures or something ridiculous like that. All of my friends are beautiful, they just don’t seem to know it. And then there’s me. Me and my sister, actually. We are obnoxious camera people. The kind of people who “cheese” whenever a camera is pointed at us instinctively. For some reason we really enjoy having our pictures taken and, to quote Dan Williams, I have a theory about that.

I like physical memories. That’s really what pictures are, isn’t it? They’re memories in physical form; a visual reminder of exactly what that moment in time looked like in that place with those people. It is a perfect portrait of an instant in life and I love having the ability to go back and remember exactly what that moment looked like. I like looking at myself as a twelve-year-old and seeing how ridiculous I flipping through my pictures from high school to remember how funky my friends were. I like having that lasting reminder of days long past, and apparently lots of other people do too.

We seem to have become this culture of must have pictures. I’m thinking about this a lot as I plan my wedding. Engagement pictures are this huge thing now. My parents have one set, I think taken in some studio of just them posing together. I have pictures on train tracks, a tire swing, the porch of Fern Cliffe, behind the library, and we’re planning on taking more once the leaves change colors. My fiance is wonderfully patient with me. Engagement pictures are huge. Wedding pictures too are huge. I understand, of course, you want to remember this day as much as possible, but they’re such a production nowadays. Used to be you took pictures with the family, the bride and groom and the wedding party and you moved on. Now you have to get all the fun crazy unique pictures with the party and of the bride getting ready and the dress and the shoes and the groom getting ready and all the guys and the child attendants and the family and the venue and the entrance and the first look and then all the crazy fun unique pictures with the bride and groom together and it’s such a pain. But you know what? I’m going to do it. I’m going to put myself and my friends through all that because I want the physical memories. I want to look at them and think “What a fun crazy unique day that was.” and smile at my friends and how much fun we’re having even though I was probably in reality stressed up to my eyeballs. I may just be insane, mind you, but again, I like having my picture taken and that is a day that I have a legitimate excuse to get it done.

I blame technology. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, just saying, when every family owns a camera that doesn’t require developing film every few weeks taking pictures becomes a lot more common. Then again, I was taking cray random pictures even when I did have to spend money on film. Well, my dad did, anyway. I’m pretty sure they regretted getting me my own camera. My sister is the one with the talent, after all. My pictures are just kinda quirky memories. Erin’s are actually art. I’m okay with this, she can take all the pretty pictures she wants and I will enjoy them and then go and take my pictures where I’m making some ridiculous face and the background makes it look as though something is growing from my head, because those are the best pictures. I’m going to be one of those parents that takes all the pictures of their children and then puts them on the internet for the world to enjoy and probably judge. Ah well.

So yeah, that’s how I feel. I like pictures. I enjoy creeping through my friend’s photos to see what they did and how they looked before I knew them. I enjoy digging through boxes of photos to see all the awkward faces I made and things I did as a child. I’m kind of vain that way. It’s not entirely my fault, though. I’ve been told that I photograph well and one can’t help but take that to heart after a while. I’ve come to accept it, though. It used to be that I was felt awkward about actually wanting my picture taken when everyone else was trying to dodge the camera, but now I have embraced my oddity and really, why not go all out? Someone’s got to do it, might as well be me.

 

Surviving Week One

Well, I made it. I survived week one and have moved on to week two. Impressive, no? And I’ve only suffered a little bit of homesickness after spending a weekend with my mom. Funny that I should feel homesick when I wasn’t home all that much to trigger it. Anyway, I’m settling in and having very minor and uneventful adventures along the way.

I discovered that morning showers are not a terribly good idea here. I have also discovered that I don’t actually have any control over the water temperature at all. The little nobs give only the illusion of power. The water will switch from super extra hot to freezing in a matter of seconds without consulting you in any way. It’s annoying, but bearable under the right conditions. I’ve taken two morning showers and they were both awful in this regard. However, my afternoon/evening showers have been more pleasant, so I think I will try to stick to those… or at least avoid shaving my legs in the morning. Have you ever tried to shave when the water is switching from warm to freezing? It leads to many unpleasant patches of razor burn.

A side from the odd shower I like my apartment quite well. I have my own little desk which is kind of a cluttered mess, but it’s mine and I like it. I like my roommates, too. It’s really encouraging to have people on either side of you to complain to when you don’t want to do your work, or your frustrated with an assignment. I get one who understands my pain and one who won’t let me give up, even if I want to. We had an adventure at Walmart one night last week. It was really only to get a few school things. We got many other things besides and played peek-a-boo in the aisle. It was a good time.

I got a visit from my fiance on Wednesday during which we made him and my roommate’s boyfriend move large objects for our own amusement… I mean into their proper places. We had a hall meeting after they left which consisted of some rather commonsense rules and reminders and then some basic room paperwork. There was much snark on the part of our room. And of course, they day after the rules are clearly stated some jerk goes and puts her laundry in two minutes before my laundry slot begins. Who does that? Apparently people on my floor. This displeases me greatly and may result in some unpleasant retaliation if it continues. I was given several suggestions, which I will keep to myself.

Inconsiderate neighbors aside, I’ve been enjoying my time on campus. It’s incredibly convenient that I can walk back to the room whenever I like. My legs will be very strong by the end of this year, if nothing else is. I’m taking aerobics this semester, though, so I should be getting stronger all over, but we’ll see. Mostly I just feel sore and a bit cranky after working out. I managed to hurt my neck because I’m apparently incompetent at doing crunches of any kind. It’s hard, though, in the middle of class when you’re trying to figure out how to pull with your abs and not your neck but you don’t have time between the crunches to try something different than pulling where you are. It was not a fun class. If I can’t figure it out in classes to come I’m going to skip them, rather than trying to push through and hope I get it right eventually. My neck is still very unhappy with me, though it’s hard to tell, now if that’s because of the aerobics or sitting wrong for two hours in the car on our way home and sleeping weird in the cabin. I haven’t been terribly kind to my body recently.

So, there starts week two. I am very quickly running out of free time in which to just relax and breathe. Between class and work and homework and wedding planning and novel writing I’m not convinced I have any free time at all. hopefully things will get better as time goes on, but we’ll see. As my dad always says: “It’ll be fine.”

 

The Moving Saga part 2

The moving continues! So I’ve been living in the apartment for the past two days and the last few days of last week. It’s been quite exciting. I walked down to my friend’s house for the first time of many, I’m sure and that was quite exciting as well. But that has nothing to do with moving, so we will skip that story and move on to Monday.

So I went to work, as usual and timed my walk from the apartment to the library so I know what time I have to leave if I’m going to work. I timed roughly five minutes on a good day. I’m sure there will be bad days when it takes me live ten minutes to cross the street alone, but at least I know how to give myself a proper buffer now. It occurred to me at some point during the day that I couldn’t run to Sheetz for my lunch as I am without a car for the first time since I learned how to drive. It is a very very strange sensation. So, I didn’t have a proper lunch, but instead ate cheese crackers from the Library’s snack stash like in the old days (aka: last summer) and then made my very Sheetz run on foot after I got off work. It was hot and uncomfortable and I was too lazy to go back to the apartment first to grab my parasol. BUT I succeeded and got an early dinner and some minor food for the apartment. The rest of the evening was spent chilling with my Twirls and walking through the dark streets of College Hill to visit another roommate in the process of packing. Fun stuff, really.

Today I didn’t have to work until noon. At six my mom came and picked me up for a lovely date/shopping trip. We went out to eat and then commenced with the Walmart trip. I was in charge of getting the bathroom stuff. I found an owl shower curtain. It pleases me greatly as I am very found of owls. Especially cute owls. There was a whole set of owl bathroom things. So I got an owl hand towel and an owl toothbrush cup and an owl hand towel and some towels that matched the owl towel. I now have many owl things! It is very exciting!

The funny thing about going to Walmart as a Farkas with compulsive buying tendencies is you look at things and think, “Hmm I could probably use (insert item here) but I don’t want to spend more money…” Solution: get the generic brand if possible or put it off for another shopping trip. I remembered many new things I needed while we were shopping. Like a laundry basket and an alarm clock. My mom also spoiled me a little bit with snack foods and chocolate. AND I bought a bridal magazine! I promised myself when I got engaged I could buy one and I am now engaged so I did it! I’m not sure what I’ll actually do with said bridal magazine, but I’m sure I’ll think of something.

The other funny thing about Walmart is you see everyone there. I ran into my cousin who also just got engaged, and saw her ring and was very excited in general. It was a good time. I also ran into two of my roommates who were also shopping for apartmenty things. It was a lovely little gathering. Someone once told me that Walmart was the place you saw all the Geneva kids at in the evenings. I didn’t believe them at first. Now I do. I don’t know if it’s just because it’s the beginning of the semester when people are moving in, or if it’s usual occurrence, but every other person I saw was a Geneva student.

So here I am now, chilling in a room full of roommates for once and feeling quite happy as I blog obnoxiously about my day. There is a Twirls to my right and a Bonnie to my left and a Debbie to her left, it is quite a happy setup. Our apartment is a mess, but that’s okay. We should be getting furniture tomorrow, which is quite exciting. All in all, our little home is coming together quite nicely. I am indeed looking forward to seeing what this semester has to bring.

 

The Moving Saga part 1

I am moving for the very first time. Well, half moving, at least. You see, it’s my senior year and I have been spending progressively more time on campus than at home during my semesters at Geneva. And with my coming marriage I think it’s about time that I learned to live with new people, deal with conflict and adjust to other peoples’ living habits before I’m thrust into my new and very permanent life. Call it a trial run, if you will.

You might be wondering at this point, “Why are you moving in now, Farkas? School doesn’t start for another week!” Yes, but Twirls is back and she’s all by herself in a big apartment with no one to keep her company. This, as her best friend, is my solemn duty, to move in early with her so she is not alone for the next week. That and I’m pretty sure it’s easier to move in when there aren’t three hundred other girls all moving in at the same time. And my family needs the car back. So see? There are lots of reasons to move in early!

Anyway, I am in the slow and rather complex process of moving into my new apartment where the Twirly one is currently living. I made my wonderful fiance help me move some stuff in Wednesday to at least get it started. We brought one basket over, a backpack full of shoes and hats, and a tote bag full of stuffed things that I will need for sleeping. They are very important. T-T Oh, and a box full of books and such. These are also important.

It’s hard moving out when you know you’re still half living at home. I intend to spend a large number of weekends at home throughout the semester, and as it is only fifteen minutes from campus I can easily run back and get things… or rather have them run out to me as I won’t have a car on campus. So the question then stands, what do I bring with me and what do I leave behind? I guess it’s not as hard for me as for other people. If I’m not 100% sure that I need something I can always leave it and retrieve it later. If I were going to school an hour or two or seven away from home that would not be an option and I would probably end up bringing all the things, even though I don’t need them. This is the story of my life. So, I started with a few books that I like, a couple that I need to read and one to reference for my dragon building. c:

Today I unpacked things after my hair appointment and brought the box and bag and basket home to be filled with more things. I filled the basket and the bag again with more things that I need: hair curler, more clothes, lots of socks, book ends, pictures. I’ve decided that I need to have more pictures printed. Why? Because I’m obnoxious and I want pictures to put up by my bed. I have one of Logan and I for my desk and one framed of me and a friend, but I want pictures of my mom and my sister and maybe even a family photo to stick to the wall by my bed. I’m going to be homesick enough without not being able to see my mom every day. It’s not quite the same, but it’s something at least. I’ll have to add that to the list of things to get from Walmart. I should actually make a list of things to get from Walmart. >.>

That’s something I didn’t think about when I started the moving process; all the Walmart trips that would be required. I need to get a lot of things. I need to get a new toothbrush for the apartment so I don’t have to carry one back and forth when I go home. I’ll need my own toothpaste, my own soap, my own silverware. I need laundry soap to clean my own clothes.My own batteries. Who thinks about batteries when they move out their first time? I probably need hangers. I’m going to need medicine at some point. I am female and prone to colds. Ibuprofen and cold medicine will be essential. I need lots of things. This will be a very special process. 

Story time! Because you knew there would be a random pointless story in here somewhere. So I moved stuff in to the apartment and my roommate left for some band meeting so I’m alone in the apartment for the first time. Outside of our apartment is a nice little tree in the corner of Young East and Young North. I look out our window to see a strange figure hiding behind the tree. Naturally, I wonder why there is a man hiding behind a tree outside my apartment and then remember that I need to actually park my car before I settle in for the night. So I go out to move the car parked on the yellow just outside the door for convenient unloading and see the guy behind the tree, moving a little bit out and sort of towards me, but not really. I am very uncomfortable with this. My solution? Move the car and take my Eskrima sticks with me back to the apartment for protection, just in case. The guy was gone by the time I got back to the apartment. I’m keeping the sticks.

SO, that has been my moving experience thus far! I am spending the night in the apartment tonight and hopefully moving the final items in tomorrow and maybe making a Walmart trip for the rest of what I happen to need. We shall see. At any rate, I’ll be living in the apartment soon enough and entering that pseudo-independent state of being at college when your parents are fifteen minutes away for easy access. And you, dear readers, will get to hear all about my adventures on my own. It’s going to be an interesting semester.

 

Three Years Now

Well here we are. Three years ago I started this blog before starting my first year of college. It is really amazing to look back at my posts and my life and see how much it has changed. In the beginning I posted almost every day without fail. I lasted about three months like that, which I pretty impressive, I should think. by the end of the year it was a couple times a week, then a couple times every few weeks… now I’m lucky if I get stuff up once or twice a month. I have been trying, really I have, but it’s getting harder and hard to do. Still, I promise to stick with you guys a little longer. You can probably expect less random thoughts and more life event updates. Why, you might ask? Well let’s look at the last three years of my life to find out.

In 2010 I started blogging. I was bored late one night and it was something I always wanted to do. I’m not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to post every day, but I was young and stupid and I thought I could make it work. And I did, for a while. I posted every week day with some random ramble that I incorrectly labeled rants. I posted a movie review every Friday and an anime review every Saturday. I’m embarrassed by the amount of typos found in my early writing… and my late writing… and all of my writing, for that matter. I really should start proof reading my posts. 😛 Anyway, it was light and simplistic and different from what I write now, but with the same voice. As the year went on and turned into 2011 I started running out of things to write about. I lost interest in a lot of anime and my life started to change directions.

My first year of college was spent at community college, looking for something that I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to write. That was all and essentially still is. A very good friend and mentor encouraged me to go to Geneva to pursue my writing education, even if I didn’t know what to do with it. I have always felt that the Lord was leading me to Geneva, and now I know why.

In late 2011 I encountered a group of students at Geneva who had a folk dance club. I enjoy dancing and attended their Halloween event. There I may have danced with a boy I may have thought was pretty cute, but no real connection was made. Until December when he sat awkwardly on a friends couch with me while his friend, my friend’s boy friend, shined my other friend’s boots. It was an interesting evening. Again, cute boy, and my wild and crazy imagination thought: “Hey, what if you started dating this guy? Wouldn’t that be funny? Him being Isaac’s friend and you being Danielle’s. It’d be perfect!” And nothing more came of this awkward couch boy until…

2012: Spring semester: Contra dancing. I stood alone in between dances since I didn’t really know anyone. And once again this cute boy shows up and starts making small talk with me. Well, when something happens three times, you’re supposed to pay attention to it. If someone shows up three times, I think they’re meant for you. Not that I thought about that at the time, I was just happy someone was talking to me. So I attached myself to him and spent the rest of the evening dancing with him, pretty exclusively. The rest of the year would be spent finding excuses to run into him, just to cultivate a friendship, mind you, and maybe wondering if he maybe liked me, because I maybe liked him, but didn’t want to admit it. This was the rest of my spring semester at Geneva.

Summer 2012: This cute boy, now known as Logan happened to be staying in the area for an internship. I happened to be working on campus in the Library for the summer. So we happened to decided that we should hang out sometime. Sometime turned into every Thursday. Hanging out turned into casual dates. Casual dates turned into dating. On July 12th it was established that we were indeed a couple and we could put it on Facebook and call each other by special names and all that good stuff. Eventually we even held hands.

Spring semester we started talking. It was always on the radar, mind you. We went in knowing exactly where we wanted it to go. It was casual conversation really, just a general idea of it if did happen, when might it happen and it was only slightly implied that it might happen to us together. Then we kissed and I was convinced. Spring break passed and I started looking at rings. Many hours were spent watching “Say ‘Yes’ to the Dress” and doing my best to justify it with the numerous coming weddings. A couple years had quickly become “next summer” and all that was really unsure was the time of engagements. A short engagement was most desirable and that meant eyeballing when we might get married and counting back so many months. I was expecting a ring late fall, at the earliest.

I didn’t have to wait that long. Come summer not planning a wedding that wasn’t official yet was getting harder and harder. Being in a friends wedding didn’t help. Not seeing my boyfriend potentially every day didn’t help either. Or maybe it did. Logan and I hit a relational growth spurt. Suddenly we found ourselves closer and more impatient than ever before. Imaginations running wild, I went from expecting a ring in the fall to looking for one around every corner. And guess what? I GOT IT!

On the 11th of August I was taken to Buttermilk Falls under the pretense of doing some devotions together. I’m not going to lie, I was suspicious. Buttermilk Falls? Not our usual devotional spot. But it could be justified, I suppose: it was a nice day, we’d been saying we needed to go sometime this summer, it was only a few minutes from the friends’ house we were meeting up with before church. Makes sense, I guess… still, rampant imagination kept the prospect in my mind. And how perfectly appropriate it would be that the first people to see us as an engaged couple would be the people practically responsible for our relationship in the first place. And so the more I tried not to think about it the more I thought about it, and as I could see him fiddling with his pocket while talking about how our relationship has grown and then seemingly remembered something he wanted to ask me… I may have said yes before the question was asked, and during… and after. I was very thorough.

And that is why the next 11 months or so will probably be mostly life updates and wedding rants/rambles. I am now officially engaged and I expect it will take up quite a bit of my life. That and being a senior in college. That might have something to do with it too. Who can say? Many plans will be made, many adventures will be had and I’m sure you, dear readers, will get to experience many of them with me as I stumble my way through wedding planning. c: It’ll be grand! Funny how a post celebrating my three years of blogging has turned into one big engagement announcement. I regret nothing! Thanks for sticking with me this long, folks. Hope you stick around for the year to come!

 

Lists Lists Everywhere

I have a list. I think most people probably have a list of some sort or another. I actually happen to have several lists for several different things. I have lots of lists, in fact, but very few of them are physical. Most of these lists are in my head, or in the head of other people. My lists are everywhere! I have a list of books that I need to read. I have a list of musicals to watch with my best friend, I have a list of band names that my boyfriend has come up with. The list of lists is endless!

Have you ever noticed how many times you say “put it on the list”? Maybe you don’t say it all that much, but I do. The most common list, I think, is the shopping list. I don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t have a shopping list for food or necessities or what have you. We’ve always had a shopping list for as long as I can remember. And as long as I can remember we’ve gone shopping without that list probably 40% of the time. Funny how that works. Still, I feel kinda lost without it. I find myself going to Walmart a lot for one item and thinking “I know I needed something else…” And buying one or two extra items that I possibly needed and then getting home and suddenly remembering like five more things that I needed and will have to wait to get until the next time I happen to be at Walmart.

Some lists just have to stay in my brain. My book list and to some degree my movie list are examples of such collections of items. I have tried to make a physical book list. I’ve tried several times, in fact. But the thing is, I never actually look at the list after it’s made. I sometimes start a new list, completely forgetting about the old list. The other thing about a physical book list is that I change my mind about a book and it just sits there uselessly on my list, never to be actually picked up. I can list things that people want me to read, but when I actually need something new half the time I pick up something completely new and random rather than consulting the book list which may or may not be handy at the time. So instead of writing down the books that people say I should read I just tuck them away in my memory and if they happen to be near by when I need something to read I might latch on to that memory and pick up said book for my own reading pleasure.

I’ve started making a lot of other lists since coming to college. I have two people to blame for this: Twirls and Logan. Twirls started it, I’m sure. It’s one thing to say, “Oh we should make a list of musicals to watch” and another thing to actually sit down and write out said list. Twirls is the kind of person who just does it. And so we have formed a rather impressive list of musicals we need to see or just need to watch together. And she better still have it. She’d better still have our other lists too. We made a few of them, we’re kind of ridiculous that way. ANYWAY, Twirls, having started this list making thing, is first to blame. Second to blame is my dear boyfriend. Why? Because he gave me something to list. We too have a movie list, but that’s much more practical than the list that he is known for, at least in my head. Those who know my boy will be familiar with his tendency to latch on to phrases and inform the people around him that “That would make a good band name.” Usually with a little lean and/or point. Sometimes it’ll be album title but usually it’s band name. I’m not sure when exactly I decided that these names needed to be recorded, but it happened and now it can’t be stopped. I haven’t recorded all of them, naturally. They live on my phone and if it’s not readily available the name is lost. But at last count there were over forty names on my list and all fairly ridiculous. Some of these names include: Death Perception, Sassy Demon, The Doomsday Cow, Chicken Stickies, Tsunami of Children and Festival of Cheese, just to give you an idea. This is by far the most useless list I have, but it may also be the most fun. Moral of this story is; if you need a name for your new band, I have plenty.

My mind is an amazingly cluttered place. I highly doubt any of my mental lists are actually in list form. I imagine it’s more like a jumbled, tangled ball of string ideas that randomly get tugged out once in a while when I need something. But, physically at least, I have some order to my thoughts and lists happen to be a handy way to keep things straight. I’ve decided that I like lists. They are helpful things and quite amusing if you use them correctly. I think I shall continue to make my lists, physical and imaginary. And they will continue to be everywhere…