Kimberlea Kelly

As I’ve mentioned, my birthday is coming up. It’s in 10 days which means sooner than later my friends will start dropping by or coming over that night to visit with me. It’s summer so it feels like the year is ending but since I’m going to be turning another year older it’s actually a new year for me. School has been out for a week and my class starts this upcoming Monday so this week is really the only “vacation” I get. I went home for a few days to see my family and then came back to Corvallis where I’ll be staying all summer to take Math 111 (not looking forward to that). In preparation for my birthday I’ve been working out trying to get back in my gym routine. After surgery, Shasta, dead week, and finals week, I’ve been majorly slacking on working out and I’ve been going out to eat like no other. Before those little obstacles earlier this last term, I never ate at restaurants unless my family was in town as a treat. I can’t cook very well at all, but making a PB&J is less fattening than stopping into Qdoba for a queso burrito on my way back from class. So while my meals were not balanced, avoiding eating out kept some lbs off. I’ve put on a little of the weight that I had previously lost, and with it being summer aka the season of less clothes, I’m determined to start being healthy again. I’ve already gotten a better start than last summer. Last summer in Corvallis I would wake up and go get a Dutch Brothers’ Caramelizer Freeze- sounds healthy huh? Along with unhealthy overall meal choices, living RIGHT beside Circle K doesn’t help curb sugar cravings. I have always had a major sweet tooth, I think I get it from my mom, and growing up we never were kept away from donuts, cakes, and candy whenever the craving struck. Getting a box of Junior Mints and a root beer was an everyday routine for me last summer, and I was not taking classes so I didn’t have a Dixon gym membership to work off the candy.
So that’s all changed thank God. I never believed it when people said it, but when you stop letting yourself eat sweets, you stop craving them. I recently found out another little dieting trick. I have sworn off soda since high school- minus giving in last summer- even though my WEAKNESS is rootbeer. But at Circle K they have 89 cent any size drinks and I figured a big cup of Powerade wasn’t considered pop. I’ve always thought sports drinks were just hydration beverages and not unhealthy. So a habit after class was for me and my roomie to go get 44 oz. 89 cent Powerades about every day. Just last week she pointed out that she thinks they were making her bloat, which made me take notice, and after our roommate told us there is a LOT of salt in the Powerade syrup machine, we stopped drinking those immediately. The sweetness of the Powerade was also making me want to cave in and get candy. Basically a good strategy for me would be to just put my blinders on when I’m walking down my street and avoid Circle K all together. I do go in and get sunflower seeds. Studying for finals this year I swear eating chile lime flavor sunflower seeds kept me more focused, and I went through a few bags. Now I’m addicted and I don’t plan on quitting. There are 180 calories in a serving, two servings per bag, and I take way more than two sittings to finish a bag so I don’t feel guilty.
Another start to my 21er year that I have been incorporating into my life is to refresh my room. After washing all my bedding, going through my closet to toss old clothes, reorganizing my dresser and shoes, I have found peace in my room. It feels good knowing I got rid of a lot of the built up dust in here too. I hate shoes. Storing them anyway. I keep all of my boots in a storage bucket in my closet and the rest tucked under my bed. I bought one of those products from on TV that has a zippered flat underbed style shoe organized with compartments for all of your shoes. Unsatisfyingly, the “compartments” are just a flap of fabric and really don’t do much separating. The bag also ripped just from normal use after about two months. I changed over to a much sturdier box that slides in and out from my bed without me having to stuff it back underneath like with the fabric storage I had, and now getting my shoes out and putting them away is way less of a hassle, which was one of the main clutter issues in my room previously.
Some of my other 21er resolutions include
- Drinking more water
- Tanning more (CANCEROUS yeah but everything causes cancer right? ) (sarcasm)
- Getting more trims to healthy- up my hair
- Taking vitamins
- Calling my mom more
- Spending a LOT of time at the library
- Applying for internships
- Cleaning my fish Coop’s tank more
Wish me luck! 
P.S. I want someone to recommend me a good O.P.I polish to paint my nails for my birthday I need ideas!

I’m having a conundrum picking my birthday dress. My stipulations: tight, describes me, flattering, standout, not too short
my options so far
Option 1:

http://us.asos.com/ASOS-Mini-Dress-in-Animal-Jacquard/y5dez/?iid=2219388&cid=8799&Rf-800=-1,36&Rf981=3677&sh=0&pge=5&pgesize=20&sort=-1&clr=Print&mporgp=L0FTT1MvQVNPUy1NaW5pLURyZXNzLUluLUFuaW1hbC1KYWNxdWFyZC9Qcm9kLw..

The leopard print on this dress is appealing to me because my friends know me as someone who is obsessed with cheetah print. This dress would describe me pretty well

Option 2:

http://www.materialaddict.com/Cut-It-Out-Mini-Lime_p_374.html

The neon color of this dress would make me standout in pictures for my birthday and would look good with a birthday crown and sash since it has no print to clash with. The polyester fabric makes me nervous because I don’t know what it would be like in person.
I need to decide soon for it to be shipped in time!
I should be more worried about finals……

1. I feel as though writing this blog showed me that I can actually be an interesting writer, and that I can have a good time writing.
2. I plan to keep blogging when inspiration strikes. I like reading over my past blog posts that were written when I was feeling passionate abou the subject.
3. It surprised me that I am able to actually write the way I think about things. Writing reports and essays for other classes, the style of writing is very formal. It was fun to be able to write how I feel, and to have my writing come across as fun to read. I was surprised when this term when a company emailed me to my onid asking me to mention their site in my blog after sending me free products. I was not expecting that to happen and was flattered that they liked my writing style enough to want me to advertise for them.
4. I would describe my writing voice as a little all over the place in that I easily go off on tangents while writing about another topic. I find myself having to back track and go back to the original subject I was talking about.
5. I put a lot of energy into writing my blog posts. It was fun to write them when I was excited about the topic and I found myself writing some long posts with ease.

Right now I’m writing this because I’m not with my friends. I was with my friends and six of my seven roommmates about 15 minutes ago when I gave them all a ride to the bars. Tonight is Western Wednesday downtown at Peacock, a bar in Corvallis that used to be good mostly just for its two dollar breakfast, but has gained significant popularity for its themed Wednesday nights. When dropping them off I heard and saw the line that wrapped around the block- everyone in flannel, floral print, denim, and cowboy boots to drink dollar PBRs (Pabst Blue Ribbon beer). It looks pretty fun but while I wish I was out with my friends, I also get a little time alone at our house which is pretty rare. On Western Wednesdays I get a lot of homework done, and I make a lot of brownie points with my pals when I DD them to and from the bars. We live on 14th and the bar is on 2nd, so while most people walk home or buy a cab, I swing by and get them since I am sober. This past Friday was our roommate Molly’s 21st birthday. There are 8 roommates, one who is a sophomore so she has a little while to be able to drink, six who are twenty one, and me who is 21 in 25 days 23 minutes 44 seconds (countdown IPHONE app)
I’m used to being the youngest of my friends having a summer birthday, but now that I’m in the final month countdown, time is ticking by a little slower. It’s not that I am an alcoholic or THAT excited to go to bars, but just the fact that I can’t is erking. I didn’t mention that I live BESIDE Impulse, Sanchos, and Clod’s, the main bars on Monroe in Corvallis. I hate being the friend that is holding my friends back from going since they want to go but don’t want to leave me behind.
This weekend at Molly’s birthday we had people over to “prefunk” before the bars. When it turned midnight it was my job to start kicking people out of the house and out of our yard. I hate being the person asserting authority or yelling at anyone, I’m not a confrontational person and I like to be a friend, not a boss. But I was the only roommate not out to celebrate so the task fell on me. I had to break up fights that were going on in my yard, stand in front of our door with my arms outstretched yelling “PARTY’S OVER ITS MY HOUSE” and finally enlisting the help of one of my guy friends to help me bounce people out. As much as I love having random college kid strangers in my house breaking our stuff, I didn’t want it to be loud and to get an SRN. I haven’t ever gotten in trouble with the law and I’m not trying to get a MIP while I’m at it.
Before we were juniors we were freshman and sophomores, excited and looking to explore frats and meet new friends on Greek Row. Now we have our frat friends and I would feel bad asking them for a drink, rather bringing my own beverages when I go out. Freshman year, the protocol is to look good so you don’t have to buy any beverages and you ask for them in the rooms and houses you enter after you introduce yourself and make a new fraternity man acquaintance. Then you get the drink and peace. Being a girl is awesome. Frat houses have definitely lost a lot of their original appeal. I love my guy friends that are in frats, but they too are juniors and also seniors, and live in “liveouts” (their own houses separate from the house) that I prefer to go out to. When I go to the frat house I see freshman and sophomores doing the amateur things I used to do and it makes me feel old.
Having a summer birthday can be a bummer. When I was young and threw parties, many people would be out of town on family vacations or have various Fourth of July plans. (My birthday is July 2nd.) (25 days 10 minutes 53 seconds now). I have come to expect less on my birthday and I usually at most have some cake at my grandma’s house with my family and go to lunch and shopping with one or two friends at home.
Last year was my first birthday in Corvallis. Technically it was after my birthday. On my birthday I was in the hospital recovering from getting my appendix out- YEAH BAD TIMING APPENDIX. I hope I am finally done with surgeries all together. But July 6th I’m pretty sure I was back and healing up just fine. My plan was to just hang out with the few of us who lived here in the house during summer at our other friends’ liveout and not party too hard. I wasn’t expecting any birthday celebration and my friends had already given me cards.
While we were watching TV my roommate McKenna acted weird and said she wanted to go home. I was confused but followed suit. When we walked into my house about 10 of my friends were gathered around our kitchen table and yelled surprise with a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake and some champagne and watermelon. I had never had a surprise party or really that intense of a birthday party at all, and it literally was the best birthday I had ever had, and it wasn’t even on my birthday. Feeling like my friends had actually PLANNED something for me meant a lot, especially in the summer when not many plans are made and everything is quite laid back.
Corvallis is a lot different in the summers than during the school year in that since a lot less people are here, when something is going on such as a little get- together weekend situation, the randomness of the people around lets you get to know new people and appreciate who is around. There aren’t as many people as you’re used to during the school year, so you make all new friends. And since Corvallis is so close knit, these summer- crew friendships extend into the school year as a bond that is weirdly strong and un- understandable by people who aren’t in town in the summer. Wow SO corny but I love it here.
When it is your 21st birthday, at least for my group of people and most junior sorority women of Oregon State University, your friends make you a Facebook event announcing your night. Usually you start at El Prez, the local authentic Mexican restaurant that has a large and unique variety of different shots with names like “Prairie Fire” that has Tabasco sauce, “Jolly Rancher” not sure what’s in that, “Girl Scout Cookie”, “Pink Squirrel” (one of the most popular with my sorority sisters since my house mascot is the squirrels). You eat a big dinner at El Prez to carb up for your night and get too many shots bought for you. Everytime you get a drink bought for you it is written down in your birthday book. This is a scrap book that your best friend makes for you that has 21 pages, each designated to one of your friends that includes a picture of you two together, a space to write the drink, where, and who it came from, along with a line to write your signature as you get more and more inebriated. The point is to have twenty one drinks. Making a list of 21 of my friends was difficult to narrow down. I chose by selecting people who will be here this summer more likely. El Prez takes a picture of you wearing a sombrero and you tape it to the wall of their lobby. Then you go to the bars and get your ID checked and have more fun. Then you get taken care of and put to bed to be woken up the next day with breakfast at Shari’s. I AM LITERALLY TERRIFIED. I don’t like drinking a lot and I do not enjoy the feeling of being out of control of myself/ embarrassing/ blacked out. Part of me wants to skip the El Prez dinner because that is where the most intoxication of the night comes from, but I really want my picture on the wall and my birthday book will be best filled out there. It’s tradition too.
Non summer birthdayers have their birthdays during the school year on nights they may have school in the morning, or if it is the weekend, share their birthdays with other people who are also celebrating theirs, or on a weekend where something else fun is going on another day that people don’t want to get too worn out for. I am excited for my birthday this year though because with the tight knit/ random/ small group of people who will be in Corvallis, and those who will be bored in Portland wanting to come down for Fourth of July celebrations, my birthday will be the ONLY event going on that night so it should kind of be fun, surprising night. *knock on wood*
It’s also scary though to think of all the drinks people will be shoving in my face. I’ll be okay though and I actually don’t lose control very easily. I’m currently shopping for a birthday dress to wear that night. Usually I would also be shopping for birthday heels to wear, but at 5’11″ I don’t every wear them out, and the drunkest night of my life probably isn’t the night to start.
So I’m only a minor now for 24 days, 23 hours, 34 minutes, and 12 seconds. And my best friend just called me to come pick her up from Peacock. She’s buying me a burrito on the way home. Being the last of friends to still be a minor isn’t THAT bad for now

I went through recruitment my freshman year not really knowing what I was getting into but definitely wanting to give Greek Life at OSU a chance. My close friend from home goes here and is a year older in Kappa Kappa Gamma and with her glowing recommendations of the Greek system I had her house in mind as a goal as I met girls and took house tours. I am from Banks, a small rural town that is so unlike Portland in terms of the social scene. I basically hate my hometown/ high school. Sucks to say it, but it was full of very close minded, honestly “hick” people and there is not much to do. When I got to OSU I was opened up to a new world with my dorm friends I met that were mainly from Portland, Seattle area, and Southern California. They had going out clothes, wore lots of Nike and North Face, and wore MAC makeup. My wardrobe embarrassingly was a lot of Abercrombie and American Eagle- a phase most of them went through in MIDDLE school, but my high school had not caught onto yet. Anyway when I went through Go Greek Days, 3 days in the MU where you talk to the different houses’ booths and give them a card with your name on it, I wore such an uglier outfit than everyone else. As a junior in the house, the older girls have told me stories when they remember me as the girl with UGGs, a skirt, and way too much Jergens on. I don’t know how I ended up in such a good house. I ended up choosing AGD on preference night, the night that you have narrowed down or been narrowed down (it’s a mutual selection process) your top two houses and you have dinner and conversation with the girls to make a final pick of what house you want to be in. The next morning everyone assembles in the MU in different rooms and is given a bid card telling you which house you got into. My two “pref” houses were Kappa Kappa Gamma and Alpha Gamma Delta. I chose AGD and they chose me. I had some explaining to do with my friend from home in KKG but it turned out fine and were still very close and it actually turned out in my advantage because now I have my own house of friends, and large group of Kappa friends. Win win.
I chose my sorority based on the girls who were part of it. You meet so many during house tours, Go Greek days, and pref night. During that week you are watching the girls on campus wearing letters like a hawk. It sounds weird, but the girls I met in my sorority were basically the kind of people I wanted to be. I sound creepy. But they were down to Earth, unspoiled, pretty, funny, and happy people who were honestly the group that I wanted to have in college. Coming to college without knowing very people here at OSU, I naturally wanted to find a niche and group to fit into.
I also made my choice based on the aesthetics of the house. It is located on 26th St on Greek Row, compared to KKG which is quite far away from the dorms on 14th St and not by any other Greek houses. I was in the dorms so obviously that was a factor. Not I live on 14th and it’s close to the library and campus, and I have a different perspective on Corvallis than I did my freshman year. Kappas almost swayed my choice with the inside of their house. It is a gorgeous mansion that matches the classic Greek style, with a very modernized interior. They have a lot more alumni support than AGD does, and honestly I like the inside of their house better. It’s bigger and has this really cool hatch up to the roof where they can go up and lay on the roof and tan and enjoy the outdoors. AGD felt homey to me though. It is pretty inside, and has been remodeled twice since I joined with new bathrooms and a newly done dining room and living room. I’ll include a picture of the outside. I’m bad at describing what it looks like. I’m obviously bias toward my own house, but we have the best lawn of all the sororities.
Girls in my sorority introduced me to so many different things. I found it funny at first with the slang- words like “sketch” and “prefunk” have been added to my vocabulary, I can read Greek letters that used to look like gibberish symbols, and my clothing style has evolved quite a lot.
One of the major benefits of being in a sorority is all the people you meet. Its hard to find a class I don’t know at least one person from my house or another sorority or fraternity. When I want to go to the library during finals week and it’s packed, I just write on our Facebook group page and ask who has an open spot at their table. I love the tank tops and sweatshirts we order basically bi-weekly as lame as that seems and a lot of my wardrobe is “letters” aka clothing with AGD on it. The rule of letters is that you cannot be seen smoking or drinking in them. It misrepresents the sorority I guess.
There are plenty of lame drawbacks also. It’s expensive. As a live in my rent was $750 a month. As a live out it is currently $130 a month, plus any costs I add to my house bill like shirts or fines. Fines are hell. Simply. Many other houses don’t fine, which I am jealous of, but we do. For not attending chapter, study tables, philanthropies, recruitment, for leaving cups in the rooms, for not being dry when we are supposed to be, are associated with varying fines. Having to listen to rules so often was a major reason I am a live out. Naturally I don’t like doing house chores with the alternative of being fined 15 dollars is annoying. To get live out was a challenge. I had my doctor write a note saying I’m allergic to the mold in the old house. Lied but I have no regrets, and I can still hang out at the house when I want to.
There have been many times where I have wanted to DA (disassociate) with the house when I am frustrated with a new rule or bothered with having to attend recruitment every day for 6 hours a day the two weeks before school starts. I get a lot less out of it than I did my freshman year. Everything is more exciting for the freshman because they are meeting so many people and the functions and fraternities are all new to them. I made such great friends out of it so far though, and it does feel great to be part of a group. Plus I have bought so many letters I wouldn’t have very many clothes left. (It’s a social faux pas to wear letters as a DA). And at this point I want to get alumni status after having spent so much money on it over these past 3 years. I will be an alumni after paying my final house bill at the end of my senior year. Can’t wait.
I am so glad I went through recruitment freshman year, as intimidating as it was, and found a group of people that I love. It has made my experience at Oregon State so much better than it otherwise would have been, and I am so thankful for the people I have met. I’m also so glad it helped take any of the trashy Banks hick out of me that I had acquired from my high school.

I would definitely describe myself as a cat person. Living on a farm, my family has 5 cats that roam around outdoors and also come inside when we want to play with them. Living in Corvallis with a roommate allergic to cats, I unfortunately cannot own one here at school, which saddens me daily. One of my favorite websites is LOLCATS- pictures of cats with a caption. My oldest cat is Felix, a huge fluffy black and white cat that likes to roll over and lay on his back for a tummy scratch and is kind of stupid actually. Barbie aka Barb is my favorite kitty who I’m actually very protective over and who I miss the most when I am at school. Twix a pastel calico, is a smart cat who I ended up getting after a friend’s landlord kicked her out of his apartment and she has taken to my dad as her favorite family member, Danger, a kitten that we found in a tree when I was younger and who isn’t very loving but likes to cry a lot and be held, Dirty, an orange cat that who was a stray that started eating with our cats but now likes to come inside and be held, and lastly Mickey, who is second youngest to Barb and likes to just follow around the other ones and eat a lot but he is one of the cutest.
I have always been a cat person. The first cat I remember having was Nicki, I got her when I was five. My mom brought her home and she was playful and hyper and liked to claw my feet. She was a solid white cat that had short hair and a really sandpaper tongue and I haven’t found a white cat like her ever since then. The same day we got Nicki, by coincidence a kitten wandered up on our patio that was about the same age and we took her in. So we considered them sisters. That kitten was Nala, and her and Nicki lived to be very old cats. They both died of old age, which is very rare because we have had many cats get eaten by coyotes or hit on our road that is frequented by nursery trucks. (very sad) But Nala lived to be 12, and I held her as she passed away. She was such a good cat- very wild and liked to be outside mostly and hunt.
My favorite cat is Barb because she acts like my little baby. When I am home she literally follows me around the house if I walk anywhere, sleeps under the covers with me at night, and cries when I leave the room. I feel guilty every time I leave for Corvallis.
If my cat- allergic roommate wasn’t my best friend I would absolutely relocate to somewhere that would allow me to have a cat. I like cats so much more than dogs because they are so much more self- sufficient and less high maintenance than dogs. They don’t need to be walked or bathed, they don’t smell, and they make less bowel messes. My brother recently got a dog at home, and I’m guessing that because it is an Australian shepherd, it has an instinct to herd. The dog will literally run around all the cats into a circle, lightly nipping their shoulders if they don’t cooperate. This has been a disturbance to the cats and it actually bothers me to see them get upset. They are learning to stand up to my brother’s puppy though, hissing and clawing when she tries to herd them.
I can’t wait for the future when I will live in my own home where I will have lots and lots of cats.

Twitter

My favorite thing about twitter is being able to vent about every day life. I first started my twitter account when I was
watching E! News on TV and they were discussing a tweet Lindsay Lohan had posted. I was born in 1991 and grew up with Parent Trap, Freaky Friday, Mean Girls, and Georgia Rule as my favorite movies, so I obviously wanted to know more about what Lindsay Lohan was talking about. (haha.) But the only way to dive in depth into the E! News article was to make myself a twitter account and follow her. I went and ahead and did so. Since it was about three years ago I do not remmeber what the tweet was about. But I wish I could personally thank L. Lo for getting me into twitter. I did not initially frequently update my twitter, it took me about 3 months after I made it in August 2009 to get in to
using it regularly.
September 2009, my first freshman term of college, twitter was a half-way common anomity that not everyone had, but for me was a tool to look at celebrity activity. The Kardashians, Miley Cyrus, JoJo, and random other celebrities were who I followed on twitter. Being able to see their tweets is enjoyable because unlike something like a magazine article,
they display their honest thoughts when they are thinking them, about every day topics. It makes us as fans/ followers
feel more in touch with celebrities. (At least I do.) As time went on, twitter became more and more popular among my
peers. I went from having zero followers to one hundred, one hundred and fifty, etc. Where I was once able to voice whatever rant I felt like about my everyday life, I had to start being aware of what I was saying to make sure that I did not offend anyone that could possibly be reading my tweets.
My twitter highlight:
I do not watch a lot of television. But when I do, I watch Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kourtney and Kim Take New York, Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami, you get the picture. I, like many others in my 20 year old female demographic, am a sucker for anything Kardashian.
One night of winter term I was just getting home from class, settling in for the night to watch Kim and Kourt Take New York. I casually was on twitter as I always am, and tweeted “All I do on Sundays is wait for Kardashians to start! #kktny @KimKardashian @KourtneyKardash @KhloeKardashian #Westcoast”
I do not consider myself a wonderful tweeter. I am definitely a regular tweeter, and I bet that my average is at least 10 tweets per day. This was not a well- thought -out tweet by any means. But as I was laying in bed waiting for the show to start, I get a notification that KHLOE KARDASHIAN RETWEETED MY TWEET. I did not think it was real. After checking that it was not a hack account, and actually thee one and only, verified Khloe Kardashian Odom twitter account, I ran/ fell/ sprinted/ dashed out of bed, screaming bloody murder with excitement to tell my roommates. Khloe Kardashian is my number one favorite celebrity. Her wit and down- to – earth personality sets her apart from the rest of the Kardashians, and to have her retweet me was beyond my wildest twitter dreams.
It is is a moment that people still bring up to me, and within the hour after it happened I gained about 80 followers from the people who had seen her retweet me. Getting any celebrity to retweet me would be amazing, but having it be my absolute favorite celebrity was extra sweet.

I was on Facebook the other night when my friend chatted me that a girl from our sorority was recently added to “TheDirty.com”. The Dirty is a website anyone can submit photos and a statement to about a person, “putting them on blast” or calling them out for doing something. If they are approved by the site’s administrator, it is posted under a category such as “Portland, Oregon” or “Oregon State University” depending on where the poor person being talked about is from. The posts are then public and can be commented on. The creator of the site, Nic Ritchie comments on the submissions, giving his two cents about the person in the post (that he likely does not know) and usually judging their looks.
I have seen many people that I know on Oregon State’s Dirty page and it I feel so bad for the people put on it. Usually the posts talk about someone being a horrible person or just basically saying rude things about someone that aren’t necessarily true. There is a girl in my sorority on it that is the most down to earth, beautiful, sweet girl, and she has over fifty comments talking about how ugly she is in the picture that was posted on the dirty. I don’t want to include the post here, but there are many examples of this same situation happening to women posted on The Dirty. I have never known of someone posting someone on The Dirty, it is not something people would usually admit to because it is a very immature act. The people I have heard accused of it though are usually upset at the person for who- knows- what or a grudge they are holding. I am still not sure of where the authority that Nik has came from. Many posters on the site are asking him “would you” in terms of would he be attracted to the person in the post. Nik has been featured on the Dr. Phil show, and according to The Stir, he defends his site by claiming, “there’s a difference between getting a rise out of someone and hurting them.”
In my opinion The Dirty is the ultimate way to hurt someone, and is cyber bullying. I would be traumatized by being put on The Dirty in a picture of and unflattering moment I am having, which is usually the nature of the photos posted. Obviously an easy way to avoid this would be to not have compromising pictures on the internet, which seems like common sense anyway. No matter how you spin it and no matter what kind of “beef” or issue you have with someone, I do not believe that any one in the world deserves to be put on The Dirty. Everyone is human and makes mistakes, but there are better ways of settling a dispute than calling them out in this manner.

Like I said in my post explaining my recent operation, I am not able to workout at the current time. I have a post-op check in next week and am SO eager to find out when I’ll be able to go back to the gym. As I sit here I am at the Valley Library on campus doing homework and studying for my upcoming midterms. Upcoming as in on Friday and next week. It’s Tuesday. Usually I get around to studying for a Friday midterm Thursday afternoon. My jumpstart on the studying feels productively great. This uncommonly early studying is due to the fact that I have so much energy from not hitting the gym. Usually going to the library happens in the evenings for me, and I arrived here today at 10:30 AM.
My sleeping habits have also been affected. Usually I workout in the middle of the day and have a lot of energy afterwards, I guess from moving around so much. At night I still have a high energy level and it is difficult for me to fall asleep. The mornings are a struggle, trying to get up and go after pushing my snooze 4-5 times. Last night I went to bed relaxed and fell asleep after a few minutes, and woke up at FIVE THIRTY feeling wide awake. My alarm had been set for 9AM, but I couldn’t help feeling plenty- rested and ready to get up for breakfast.
Getting ahead on homework and feeling rested don’t sound like negative things. But I miss the way the gym makes my body feel. Having to wait for my post op check in ALL the way next week, I googled when I can work out again. The website that popped up said 8 weeks. I hope the person was wrong. The ordeal has definitely changed my perspective on my priorities though, and has shown me that I find a better balance to make time both for a workout and more study time.

Today I came home from my classes starving hungry. I have class straight from 9am to 2pm so by the time I am home I am ready to make lunch. I whipped up one of those Cups o’ Noodles where you just have to boil water and pour in the seasoning to make a yummy Asian-ish style noodle soup. The cups of styrafoam are ultra-heat-keeping so you have to wait about 15 minutes to actually eat your soup by the time you finish preparing it, so I was sitting in my living room chatting with my roommates while my stomach growled waiting for it to cool down. I’m a hands-talker. I “speak with my hands” in that when I am enthusiastically saying something, I wave my arms around a little bit. This weekend I went on a boating trip, and I was excitedly telling a story about the vacation I had to my roommate and elbowed the BOILING HOT Cup O’ Noodle onto my brand new white shirt, jeans, and the couch I was sitting on, while it burned my legs. After this I jumped up to whip my jeans off to stop the burning of my skin, and after a little bit of deep breathing and a couple swear words I was able to go change, and grab cleaning liquids to get my soup off the couch. In my house there are two kitchens and since I live downstairs and was eating upstairs, I grabbed the first bottle of cleaner I see and start spraying away at our couch. Turns out it had been refilled with bleaching cleaner and I just sprayed rings of bleach onto a green couch and was “letting it sit” while I tried to keep eating. Then I lift my cup of soup off my lap and see a ring of lightened denim on my new jean shorts I put on from wiping off the bowl of soup after it had spilled. I am frantic now, and it’s not helping that my roommates are laughing at me and my stomach is literally growling.

Anyway I finally got settled and was able to finish eating, dry off the couch, and get all my roommates to agree that I don’t have to replace the couch. Were in college, our couch can be messed up. But my roommate Ellie comments “I can’t wait until you have kids.” This comment has stuck with me all day. When I am a mother, I intend to have more than one child and it’s inevitable they will spill something, burn themselves or maybe my couch, and be causing ruckus I have to tend to at the same time I have other things going on. I consider myself a fairly good multi tasker, especially because I have been diagnosed with ADD and it allows me to think of many things at once. It actually forces me to think of many things at once. But with the ADD I can notice a lot of things going on simultaneously, but thoroughly dealing with them is harder for me. For example I can do homework while keeping a Facebook conversation going and noticing I need to call my mom back, but it’s a little harder to stay on my homework internet tab and actually call her back after my homework is done.
I am always in awe of mothers who seem calm and collected while their fleet of children run around them in public places. I feel like I will start crying being overwhelmed at the needs of rambunctious children causing ruckus regarding my future fleet of children. The other day I went with my friend to get her tires checked at Les Schwab and in the waiting room was a family of children- a girl about 2, and 2 twin boys who were about 4 years old. The mother kept reading her magazines and talking to them as they pulled on her to play with them, and asked her to get them popcorn from the machine in the lobby. The little boys threw popcorn at me, were trying to roll tires around to and fro while playing peek-a-boo with my friend and I. The mother was stress-free seeming, and when she was called to the front of the store she let us watch her kids for a moment. When she got up the little girl dumped her full bag of popcorn on herself and the floor, her brother started eating it off the floor, and the little girl got some stuck to her little shoe, making her slip and start crying. I was mortified that I had let this happen. The two seconds the mom had been gone I had made a mess for her to clean up and gotten her child to start crying.

Along with lacking in staying calm, multitasking, and babysitting kids, I am horrible at directions. I still get lost going normal places that I commonly frequent, getting stuck driving around housing developments and neighborhoods that my friends live in by taking a wrong turn and just basically not having an “inner compass” to lead myself when I am going anywhere, even on campus sometimes. When I was growing up I was such a lucky daughter, getting taken to all sorts of places not necessarily very close to our rural home. When I have kids I won’t know how to find places like the zoo, or their friends’ water park birthday parties that require road trips. I panic when I get lost too. Moms aren’t supposed to be panicky right?
I’m still a lucky daughter though so I’ll just grab my dad to drive with me to give directions I guess. And hopefully I’ll have a husband who isn’t ADD and can take care of the kids…? Having children is one of my future goals yet still biggest fear.