CWW

There is a black hole in my life right now and that would be Christmas with Wartburg (CWW). Lately it has been sucking up all of my time with 2 or 3 hour rehearsals each night. I feel two different ways about it because it's a lot of fun. I really love to sing, and the sound is incredible with all of the choirs together. In that sense it's really fun, and I really enjoy it. On the other hand we have to stand basically the whole 2 hours, which is exhausting and it's just a really long time to be rehearsing. We also have to memorize 7 or 8 songs, which is a lot especially when we've only had the music for about 3 weeks or so. I think the performances are going to be really awesome though, and I'm excited. I just have to not think about all of the work that I have to do in the next couple of weeks and enjoy it. It's a really cool combination of music, and I like listening to the other groups perform. This is my first time experiencing Christmas with Wartburg, and I suppose the positives outweigh the negatives in the end. I think the concerts will be amazing and my family is coming to one so it's another chance for me to see them. That'll be nice to kind of split up the time in between now and Christmas break. I just have to survive these incredibly long rehearsals, not pass out, and memorize my music. Hopefully I can do all of those things :) and really have a great time with Christmas with Wartburg!

Thanksgiving

We have this tradition in our family that before we eat Thanksgiving dinner we go around the table sharing what we have been thankful for this past year. As I sat there thinking about what I was thankful for, I was overwhelmed with all of the blessings I've had this year. My senior year was one of the best years I've ever had before. It was so much fun, and I made a lot of lasting memories with my friends. It was a great way of closing out one chapter of my life. The summer was a blast, and I did so many fun things throughout it. One of my biggest blessings has been coming to college and having a smooth transition. I've made great friends that I'm so thankful for (Zach, Amy, Abbi, Megan, Carmen, Ellie, Sarah, Paul, Nick, and Josue)!! I've really transitioned well to being on my own and the challenges of college classes. It's probably the thing I'm the most thankful for. I've had great health throughout the year, my dad has a job, I have an incredibly awesome and supportive family, we have a nice house to live in, and I haven't had a lot of major worries. I'm thankful for all of these things, even though it's easy to forget about them. As you can see, I have a lot to be thankful for! I'm so blessed, and I hope this year goes as well as last year did.

Slow-walking people

There are a group of people in this world that I sometimes want to punch in the back of the head. Those would be the slow-walking people of the world. I know it's violent, but it is so annoying at times. Why do you have to walk so slow? Other people have places to be and things to do. We aren't all able to move along at your leisurely pace even though we may want to. Walk faster! It's also annoying when you take up the whole freaking walk-way. If you're going to walk slow at least do it off to one of the sides instead of smack dab in the middle. It's like on a track, slow moving people stay to the outside so the rest of us can pass you if we need to. The worst is when there are two slow-moving people walking side by side and taking up the whole walk-way. Sometimes I don't want to go around. It might be muddy or maybe there's snow on the ground. It's especially annoying when they see and they still don't move out of the way so you can get by. Like your conversation is so vitally important that you can't pause it for 10 seconds while I walk by. I don't believe it! This is probably the most random ranting I've ever done, but it's a big pet peeve of mine. I believe I can control my violent urges, but hopefully I don't encounter too many slow-moving people and then I won't have to worry about the temptation.

Stress

I feel like lately my life has been one never-ending wave of stress. There is always something that needs to be done. Since I've come to college, never has there been a moment where I could just sit around and watch T.V. because there wasn't anything else I could be doing. I hate it at times, and I wonder if society has become that way over time or if it has always been like this. There is a constant pressure to succeed and a fear of failure that can be very overwhelming at times. This has all led to a huge amount of constant stress in life and it's all stress that is man-made. There are no forces in the world that state you must get an A on your biology test, yet if I don't get one on my test tomorrow, I'll be disappointed in myself and never stop to think about what I learned from it. Life isn't measured by what you learn anymore. It's all about your successes and failures, and the stress from trying to make sure your successes outnumber your failures is difficult not to be overwhelmed by at times. Sometimes it makes me want to just quit and become a hobo living on the streets, but I don't think that will happen. I don't really want to be a hobo; sometimes I just convince myself that it would be easier. I just need to find better ways to manage my stress, and one of the ways I do that is giving myself sometime to relax even if there are other things I could be doing. It keeps me from going crazy, which is a good thing. Now I can finally have somewhat of a break this week, and I can't wait.

My Life on the Futon

As the title suggests lately I've been spending a lot of time on my friend Amy's futon. It all started about a week ago when a bunch of my friends were in her room watching a movie. It got pretty late and she asked if we wanted to just spend the night in there. Now this futon literally is a magic futon. It is the most comfortable thing I think I've ever slept on before. I had taken naps on it previously, and I knew that if you even laid down for just a few minutes you would fall asleep. So that night I got the best night's sleep I've had since coming to college. Now I love sleeping on it, and I promise it's not in a creepy I'm sleeping in somebody else's room kind of way. It's just a really really comfortable futon. :) The other day I actually found myself thinking about the nap I was going to go take on it after class was over. It was so weird, and I've realized that the futon is like a black hole, once you get sucked in, there's no going back! Even now as I write this blog I'm sitting on the futon, and I literally spent most of yesterday on it as well. (it was a perfect day to just watch movies since it was so crappy outside) Anyway I know this is random, but I felt like I should let the world know about this amazing futon. Except you all can stay away because it's my futon at least as long as Amy and Abbi continue to let me sleep on it some nights! (please let that be for the rest of the year!) Ok one more full week before break to go, hopefully with the rest I get on the futon I can make it! :)

Roomate

I found out a few weeks ago that my roomate Jordan was dropping out of school and going back to Minnesota to go to a community college. It was mainly for financial reasons, and it came as quite a shock to me. One of the aspects of college I was the most worried for was rooming with someone else. I just wanted someone that I could get along with even if we weren't best friends. Jordan was the best roomate I could have asked for. We got along really well, and even though we're very different from each other, we became good friends. I was really surprised when he told me he was leaving because I didn't have any idea that he was having some problems. I really wanted to help him in some way but there wasn't much that I could do. I felt so bad, and I wished there was something I could do. Now I've slowly watched him pack up his stuff over these past few weeks and the reality is starting to settle in. He took home his first load of possessions this weekend, and he'll be back tonite to get the rest of it. He has a few things to wrap up on monday and then he'll be gone! It's going to be so weird having the room to myself, which will be kind of nice in some ways, but I wish he could stay. I really hope that he figures out what he wants to do with his life, and I wish him all the best!

Global Warming

State of Fear has been a really good book to read, but it's driving me crazy. Are any of the things we've heard about global warming true? It seems like all of the information that we hear today about global warming is either a lie or grossly exaggerated. I just don't know what to believe anymore. It would be interesting to hear someone on the side of pro-global warming look at all of these statistics and evidence and see how they would interpret it. The book really makes you question the validity of information from the media and those sources. I just wish the truth would come out. Is there really a whole conspiracy going on that involves environmental groups or various big industries? Maybe not necessarily but at the same time the story being presented by the media isn't completely true. So where are they getting their information from and why isn't it the truth? My views on global warming are definitely starting to change, and I would say I'm more in the middle now than on one side or the other. It's hard to just let all of my previous beliefs go, but Crichton cites his evidence and his book really can't just be ignored either. I think our debate will be interesting because it will make examine at least one of the sides deeply and maybe it will help flesh out my views on the subject. The whole truth probably isn't out there either way, but it really has been kind of a shock to learn that something you thought was true pretty much without a doubt may actually not be an issue at all!

Sleep

I need sleep! I need sleep so much that I've devoted one of my blogs for this past week to sleep! :) I'm a person that needs sleep at night. Some people can get along just fine on 4 or 5 hours of sleep each night, but I am NOT one of them. In high school my friends always made fun of me because I went to bed at about 10 or 10:30 every night as long as I didn't have a lot of homework or a test to study for. If I didn't have anything else to do, I just went to sleep. In college though I keep staying up just to stay up. Sometimes I'm up late doing homework or studying and that doesn't bother me as long as I managed my time well during the day and it's just the amount of work I have to do that keeps me up. Typically I found myself getting between 5 and 6 hours of sleep each night and it is not enough for me. I have trouble keeping my eyes open in classes (particularly around 9:30am) and I'm always tired. I get mad at myself because every morning I wake up (7:45 mon, wed, fri) and ask myself over and over why did I stay up that late? It is going to be one of my goals over the next couple of months before the first semester is over to get into better sleeping habits. I want to try and get at least 7 hours of sleep, maybe 8 if I'm really lucky! I think it will just make the school day more enjoyable when I won't be struggling to stay awake. We'll see how that goes haha!