i tell you hwat

Well, well, well.

I just thought I would take this opportunity of free time that I have to bring all you people who click this link on my Facebook wall up to speed on what is going on in my life. I'm not one to really share my personal details with anyone anymore, except my mother. But I thought, hey, people are going to ask me about it and so I might as well just throw it out here in a blog post.

For starters, I no longer live in a residence hall on campus at UNI. The last weekend in March, I moved off campus and moved into a house with my boyfriend and three other stellar people. Yes, I have only been dating my boyfriend for six months. Everyone's relationships are different and progress at different times. You may feel comfortable waiting until you've been dating a year or longer, but I felt comfortable now. So far, it has been great, and I've grateful for the nerf gun wars that have been happening between Dalton, Devon, Eric, and I. It is very nice to be off campus, even if I have to commute every day. I feel better having my own shower instead of a community shower, sleeping in a bed that isn't six feet off the ground and twin-sized, and having a garage to park my car in. 

With the "moving off campus" topic comes the question: why did I decide to move off campus? While I could think of a million different ways to tell you why I did, I will keep it short and simple. My roommate and I were having many disagreements to the point where we didn't talk much anymore, nor really acknowledge each other's presence when we were in our room. I had the opportunity to move out, and I took it. I do not regret it one bit. I love living where I am living now, and would do it again in a heartbeat. Not to mention I don't have to hear girls screaming after 10 p.m.

Moving on from that awkward topic, I also wanted to let you all know about the great opportunity I have coming up in May. I will be spending the month of May being an intern at the Clayton County Sheriff's Office. Chief Deputy Steve Holst emailed me my tentative schedule today, and it looks like I will be alternating my time between riding with deputies and chilling in the jail and dispatch room. I'm also in for a couple shifts until 4 a.m., so that should prove to be one heck of a time. I am very excited to step into the world of law enforcement, and feel it will be a step in the right direction for my career. During my internship, I will be living at home on the farm. When my internship is completed, I will be moving back to Cedar Falls for the summer and working at Menards (if you didn't already know, I am a cashier). 

As for now, I will be heading to Ames tomorrow to spend the weekend with Tara Follon and Keaton Lane. I will be seeing the musical The Secret Garden on Saturday night, which Keaton is in. I am looking forward to a weekend of catching up and being stupid. 

Ireland!

Hello you lovely readers of mine! I am more tired than I have been in a while, and it's all thanks to a little friend I like to call jet lag. Right now, it would be around 1:30 a.m. in Ireland, which I have gotten used to after a week of being there. I just wanted to take this moment while my laundry finishes drying to tell you all a little information from my trip that you didn't get to see from the photos I uploaded to Facebook!

For anyone thinking about traveling, I very much recommend visiting Ireland. We flew out of Chicago around 4:30 on March 12, and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, at 7:30 a.m. their time, which would be around 1:30 a.m. here in Iowa. We had a few hours to kill before our next flight left around 11:30, which was straight to Dublin. When we arrived in Dublin, we went through customs and got onto a charter bus, which was driven by a man named Pat and accompanied by a tour guide named Brian, both of which were with us our entire stay. Pat was more on the quiet side, but Brian was very lovely and full of historical information about the country. We went directly from the airport all through the countryside, which took around two and a half hours. On our way to the Cliffs of Moher, we went through a little village that was the home of President Barack Obama's eighth cousin. The village, which is almost completely empty, has a truck plaza named Barack Obama Plaza, where we stopped to use the restroom and exchange our money into Euros. While we were there, an Irish gentleman who was not sober by the name of Darnish (or something similar) came onto our tour bus, told some girls they were pretty, etc etc., took a UNI flag someone had brought with them and got off the bus. Our tour guide, Brian, got off the bus, told the man to give the flag back, and he was hesitant but finally gave it back after giving Brian a hug. When we got to the Cliffs of Moher, it was so breathtaking. The sea was a very dark blue color and the greenery and sky was just perfect. It was a little windy and cold, but nothing we couldn't handle knowing the everyday conditions of campus here at UNI. When we finished with the Cliffs, we had supper at a random hotel and had a few more hours on the bus before arriving at our hotel in Killarney.

Hanging out at the Cliffs of Moher. I give it a thumbs up.

On Monday, March 14,  we took a tour by bus around the Ring of Kerry, which is basically a highway that goes through the Kerry Mountains. We saw a lot of sheep, lakes, and amazing views. We also went through a very old stone tunnel while driving back to Killarney. When we got to town, we did some shopping before we went off to eat dinner at the hotel. When we finished with that, we had a concert at St. Mary's Church in Killarney. We shared our concert with a high school group from Florida, and their director was actually a friend of our director. The concert went well, and we returned to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

Jessica and I at a stop on the Ring of Kerry.

On Tuesday, March 15, we visited the Blarney Castle. It was very cold, and we waited in line for approximately an hour. We were stuck behind some of the kids from that high school group we sang with, and one of them kept making stupid comments about everything. For example, "That light is original to the castle. It's like 17,000 years old". The view from the top of the castle was awesome, and even though I could've, I did not partake in kissing the Blarney Stone, just because 1) Ginger Kruse told me people pee on it, and 2) I've had a lung infection for a week, which was just diagnosed today.

Jessica kissing the Blarney Stone.

After viewing the castle, we ventured to Waterford, where we toured the Waterford Glass visitors center and got to see how the famous crystal is made. We saw where they mold it, where they etch it, polish it, and everything in between. When we finished the tour, we went to the Waterford Crystal store and I purchased a vase for my mother, since she so graciously asked for one before I left (or should I say, ordered me to bring her one). LOL. When we finished shopping there, we had a walking tour of the city where we saw old churches, got stories about the vikings, and I took a selfie with a pigeon. We returned to the hotel for dinner and sleep later that night. A bunch of us also went out to pubs that evening, and this is when I found out I didn't like Guinness. When we finished at the pubs, I was eager to get some pizza and so was Regina. We found a pizza shop that was open until 4:00 a.m. and I ordered some cheese pizza and garlic bread. In a series of unfortunate events, someone took my pizza by mistake, and so the cooks had to make a completely new one. But it was worth it. The pizza was gooey and good, and of course the garlic bread was on point. Garlic bread always is.

On Wednesday, March 16, we had a tour of Kilkenny Castle, which had very ornate victorian era architecture. Although almost all of the pieces in the original castle were auctioned off in the 1950s, there were still a few family heirlooms that stuck around. I'm sure my mother would've enjoyed it very much. We had the afternoon after the tour at leisure to shop and eat, and so we went to a restaurant called Left Bank. This building used to be an actual bank before the recession in Ireland took place, and so it was closed down during the recession and made into a restaurant. I, personally, did not find anything on the menu to be appetizing, so I just ordered a scone. And it was a damn good scone. We had a concert later that night at Christ Church Cathedral in Waterford, which was about an hour drive from Kilkenny.

On Thursday, March 17, we traveled to Glendalough and toured the monastic sites established in the 6th century. There were many structures still standing, and one of the things I loved seeing the most was the cemetery on the land. When we were finished visiting there, we traveled to Bray and took part in the Bray St. Patrick's Day parade. There were children spraying silly string the entire parade, so you can imagine how much lime green string I picked off of my jacket as we walked on the parade route. When we finished, we took a group photo by the ocean and then sang a set of songs on the stairs of a restaurant called Barracuda. We ventured to our hotel in Dublin later that night and went out for drinks at a local pub to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I ordered a Strawberry Daiquiri, as I had been all week since the Guinness incident, and it had to have been 90% artificial flavoring. It was very tart and disgusting, but I managed to get through it. I got so tired while we were there that I was doing a word find on my phone to keep me awake. I am definitely the life of the party.

University of Northern Iowa Women's Chorus on the Beach in Bray, Ireland.

On Friday, March 18, we had a morning tour of Dublin where we visited Trinity College and got to see the Book of Kells, as well as this awesome library they had on campus. At 12:30 p.m., we had our final concert in St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. The acoustics were great and the cathedral was just beautiful. After that, we had an hour or so to ourselves around town before we met up at 3:20 to tour Dublin Castle. While we were out and about, I kind of veered away from the group without telling anyone where I was going and got a tattoo of a fox on my wrist. I was late getting to the castle, and everyone was freaking out about it (especially Niccole Giberson) but I made it there before our choir director did, so everything was good! This castle was also beautiful and we got to see a river that flows completely underground as we toured it. That night we went to a restaurant called Merry Ploughboys pub, where we enjoyed dinner and an awesome show by the featured band, the Merry Ploughboys. They are awesome, by the way! In between their set, there were some Irish dancers on stage, and they were also awesome! Man, this trip was amazing.

Library at Trinity College, Dublin.

My fox tattoo!

Saturday, March 19th we woke up and got on a plane to Munich, Germany, around 11:30 a.m. I slept most of that flight. When we arrived in Munich, we had about twenty minutes to spare before our plane to Chicago started boarding. We were all freaking out, because we still had to get our entire group of 45ish people through security. However, some strings were pulled and all our passports were stamped so that we would not have to go through security. Apparently I almost didn't pass as the same person on my passport, though, because the guy checking it had to do a double take before he let me through. I swear I just cut my hair!

We arrived home to Cedar Falls at 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning. I woke up around 11:30, and worked a six hour shift from two to eight at Menards. I'm not sure how I stayed awake, but I made it. Although I enjoyed Ireland very much, despite being ill, I am happy to be home, where I don't have to constantly eat chicken and ham, and I can get my Culver's fix. I'm also happy because I can call my Mom to bother her whenever I want, as well as see Dalton.

P.S. Mom, I didn't break your vase while traveling home. You're so lucky.

If anyone wants to hear about the trip, I will gladly reiterate this blog post to you in person! It was an amazing experience to be able to share with the University of Northern Iowa Women's Chorus. I've made so many new friends this week, and gotten closer to those I already had.

Have a lovely night!

New Year, New Me? Eh, Maybe.

Hello, and welcome to the already fabulous year that is two-thousand and sixteen. I'm not your host (I can't play God), but I am my own guide through the events that are to come in the next 364 days. As if that sentence couldn't sound anymore like a game show. My year has been off to a slow and rather dull start. I screamed several times at the television this afternoon, watching the Iowa Hawkeyes make mistakes, which of course, could happen to anyone. I'm just grateful that they got the chance to play in the Rose Bowl at all. After the screaming commenced, I just laid around on Tara's couch on my phone for several hours, somewhere in there we got ice cream, and I came home. And here I am, lounging in my bed, trying to throw together some unofficial New Year's resolutions that I'm bound to give up by the end of next week.

My major goals for this year are to get my finances in line and get into shape (or at least more than what I am currently). I am going to start the finance path off by handing my Victoria's Secret credit card and my debit card over to someone more responsible to handle them. No, I don't mean I'm giving them away free to a good home. What I mean is that I will have someone hang onto them for me, and in the event that I think I "need" them, they can make the call on whether or not I get it back. I have found that having my debit card at my disposal constantly only makes it easier for me to go to Taco Bell, Culver's and Kwik Star for unnecessary food, instead of eating at the dining center, which I am paying for. The Victoria's Secret card is self-explanatory as to why I need that taken away. Hopefully by taking these steps, I will show myself how much money I could actually be saving, and when I eventually get my cards back, I will not have such an impulse to use them as I did before.

The other goal, exercise, has been a long time coming. I'm not necessarily overweight by any means, but I did gain 10 pounds since I came home for Christmas Break. I get winded climbing stairs, and sometimes I just don't feel healthy (mostly because I eat junk food a lot). Since my career goal is to become a police officer, I am going to have physical fitness standards to meet. Currently, I would not be able to do more than two pushups or even run a mile in a somewhat decent time. But my goal is to be able to strengthen my body all-around so that I can at least meet some new PRs and feel great about what I am doing. In order to make sure that I actually go to the Wellness Center on campus to work out, I have created a weekly schedule that I will follow rigorously, that has every hour of my weekdays planned out. I am going to exercise on Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester, since I have a class in the WRC and will be done right when the upstairs gym opens up.

I hope that whatever goals you have set for yourself this year, that you live up to the expectations and meet them! It's always good to feel good and reach your goals :) Have a safe, happy, and healthy 2016.

Second Year, Second Chance

Hello all.

As I am beginning my fourth month as a sophomore at the University of Northern Iowa, I have found myself feeling more and more at home in Cedar Falls. Last week, my three soon-to-be roommates and I signed a lease for a house that we will be living in next school year. It's scary to think that I, a person who doesn't even have a savings account and can barely save her money, will have to pay rent each month. This means it is time to kick it into adult mode and realize that I will have expenses and I cannot blow my money on fast food and new clothes whenever I please. I have also noticed this year that I have been doing better with my schoolwork (homework, tests, and quizzes) and the improvement is much needed. I feel more adjusted to college and that I can accomplish more than I thought I could last year. I have new friends, an awesome roommate (oh, I forgot to tell you all. I'm rooming with Melissa), and I still love my job. Things are looking bright. Except for my migraines, they aren't so bright.

Now to a less serious note.

I CAN'T WAIT TO GO TO IRELAND IN FOUR MONTHS! GAH!

With every passing month, time creeps a little closer to the Women's Chorus Ireland Tour. I am so darn excited, and I can't thank my parents and all the wonderful people who have donated money towards this trip enough. I really appreciate everything you all have done for me and I cannot wait to upload pictures to Facebook during the trip so you can see what your cold, hard cash is being used for.

I also cannot wait to spend a week and some odd days at home for Thanksgiving Break. Sometimes you just miss your Pomeranian. And maybe your parents too, but more so the dog. Just kidding. I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and talking non-stop about pointless things to my mother as she tells me to cool it and go do something productive.

Although this post was short, I really do not have any juicy gossip to add to it, so I will leave it at that. I hope you all have a wonderful week and two weeks from now plus two days, a Happy Thanksgiving.

One Crazy Summer

Hello readers of this utterly bland blog of mine. Let me just start by saying that I hope you are having a tremendously fun summer, and spending it with friends and family doing the activities that you love to do.

I have been spending my summer balancing two online college classes. I am taking Western Civilization 3 and Social Problems through Hawkeye Community College to satisfy two required liberal arts classes at UNI (six credits). Due to not wanting to read during the summer, my mother has been taking my Western Civ tests with me. We have straight B- scores on each test, so apparently neither of us are really informed. The other class has been a breeze, and I am just glad that this is the last week of the class, with my final exams being due Monday the 27th.

As for work, my options dwindled out as fast as the small amount of money in my checking account. I had started the summer thinking I would have a full-time (or at least a few times a week) babysitting job in Elkader. To this very day, I am not sure why that fell through, but I babysat twice and was never contacted again. I didn't do anything wrong, so who really knows. I tried to get some hours at my previous hometown job, but to no avail. So I have been skating through the summer thanks to generous contributions from my parents (i.e. my mother has been giving me cash every time I need some). I have also been pulling weeds with Jessica for Lorna Christeleit, so that has become what you could call "a steady income". A reminder: if anyone needs any work done in their yard, home, or whatever you can think of, Jessica and I are still working towards donations for our trip to Ireland next spring. If you don't need both of us, contact one or the other. We're eager beavers.

Now to the playing. I have went many places this summer, but haven't knocked many things off my summer bucket list. I've went to numerous movies (Max, Magic Mike XXL, The Gallows, Spy, Jurassic World, Inside Out, the list goes on and on), spent some time creeping around Elkader with the "squad", and taken some trips outside of town too. Keaton, Tara and I went to Dubuque a few weeks ago for shopping and leisure, and had palm readings done downtown. We also rode the Fenelon Place Elevator, and I got a new pair of Van's (which I probably didn't need, but I am a girl, so the more shoes, the merrier).

Keaton, Tara and I at the top of the Fenelon Place Elevator in Dubuque, Iowa

I went to Lost Island Waterpark in Waterloo with Charlie, and I have went down to UNI twice this summer to work the choir booth at the orientation fair. I did Black Hawk County Relay for Life with Melissa Curtis, a grand friend, in honor of my aunt Sandra Shippy. I paid $5 to throw a softball at UNI President Bill Ruud in the dunk tank, but missed. Thankfully, he has no reason to expel me.

One cool cat named Melissa, my cousin Avery, and yours truly.

Another one of my favorite summer memories would have to be the addition of Janice the Snail to
our Elkader Squad:

Janice with a fan.

Janice was an art project created by Megan Rochleau, and she was made of fabric, what I am assuming was cardboard, and other objects. She was discarded at the school dumpster and had apparently sat there for a few weeks before I seized the opportunity I saw with her. She became known as "Janice" after Janis on Friends, and we took numerous photos of her around Elkader. My mother decided to call her skanky since she lived by the dumpster, and would not allowed me to bring her in our house, so she took up residence in the hatch of my car. She fell apart, I put her back together with a new disguise, and then we accidentally left her out in the rain in early July. She was thrown away and is now resting peacefully in a landfill somewhere, courtesy of Hawkeye Sanitation.

I had an amazing Fourth of July spent camping out at my house with just a handful of my awesome friends, genuinely having a good time. It was a very memorable night. We were definitely a mess. A few days later, Tara and I ventured on out to Holstein Dip to see what all the long-talked fuss was about, and sure enough, it is a beautiful location. I'm a sucker for old bridges, creeks, and natural waterfalls. Tara dropped her socks in the water, and scared the crap out of me because it very well could've been her car keys or iPhone. A close call there.

Holstein Dip (plus Tara)

A few weeks ago Jessica, Keaton, and I decided to venture on over to McGregor for a Friday night cruise on the Maiden Voyage, listening to some lovely singing by Sophia Landis, as she was accompanied by the Big Blue Sky Band. Even though 90% of the people on the boat were our parents friends and people we've grown up around (which made it a little awksauce) we definitely had a good time and I was just glad to get out on the river and listen to Sophia sing (she has a beautiful voice). If you haven't heard her sing, here's a link to a website where she has some songs! https://sophialandis.bandcamp.com/

One side of the Maiden Voyager during our trip (photo courtesy of Daryl Bruxvoort)

The only really upsetting thing that has happened this summer was supposed to occur on July 14th at 7:30 p.m. There was a Nickelback concert scheduled to happen at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. I am a die-hard, obsessed Nickelback fan, and I was so so so excited that I would finally get to see them live! But of course, no job = no money and I couldn't afford tickets to go. When I finally convinced my mother to buy them, I went online to see that there were no tickets left! I immediately started crying because it was just my luck. But, I found an article online saying they had to cancel all their remaining tour dates because lead singer Chad Kroeger had a cyst on his vocal cords and he needed to have surgery. That made it a lot better and makes it promising that they will probably return to the area in the near future.

I hope that this blog post wasn't incredibly boring/long, and that you've enjoyed reading about my wild and crazy summer. This weekend is Sweet Corn Days, so I'm sure some rowdy photo will surface on the internet. Only a few short weeks until I return to Cedar Falls and investigate into my second year of criminology. :)

Tips for College

Now that I have finished my freshman year of college at UNI, I would like to pass some tips on to incoming freshman (going to any school) that I have learned/experienced in my first year of being at my home-away-from-home. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are odd. But either way, they're all practical somehow.

1. You can open a can of Swanson Chicken with a screwdriver. Just stab the side of it multiple times and be patient.
2. It is very much possible to survive your entire freshman year without going to a party, the bars, or in the case of Cedar Falls, The Hill. I never went to any of those three places the entire year, and I survived. I got invited to go to The Hill a few times, but I politely declined. I'm not into that sort of thing.
3. Naps and Netflix will most likely become a problem. And that's okay most of the time. Just don't let them become a reason you decide to skip class.
4. Some on-campus jobs are really cool, and you might not even know they exist! I got hired by UNI Public Safety back in March and let me tell you, I love it. I've met some awesome people too!
5. Be prepared for constant wind (Cedar Falls), rain, and any other natural weather conditions. The weather is unpredictable.
6. Buy a scooter. Trust me.
7. Don't use "I'm in a city with so many restaurant choices!" as a excuse to blow all your money and not use your meal plan. It's hard not to do it, but in the long run, it's worth not going out to eat.
8. You can make a long distance relationship work.
9. Be prepared for your roommate to tell you they need you to leave the room because they want to have sex. It does happen.
10. If you're planning on having sex, buy condoms and get on the pill. There are way too many pregnancy scares in college. Social media proves it.
11. Respect other people: clean up after yourself and use your inside voice.
12. Your neighbors WILL play their music so loud your floor rattles. Feel free to play yours back louder.
13. Buy Cards Against Humanity. People will love you.
14. Do not pack your entire bedroom. You will run out of space, have excessive junk you don't need, and then have to take three carloads home in May.
15. Study more than you think you need to. Your professors will not tell you all the information that is on the test.
16. It is 100% okay to sleep with stuffed animals.
17. Wean yourself off of traveling home on the weekends. After a while, you'll be well adjusted to college life.
18. Befriend the people who live around you. I was really anti-social towards the people on my floor 1st Semester, but then I lightened up, started talking, and now I'm pretty chill with Melissa, so who's winning at life?
19. Do not put photos of the campanile (if you have one) on Instagram. Everyone does.
20. Accept every appropriate opportunity to get out of your dorm room. You'll regret not going.
21. 3:00 a.m. fire alarms are real. 
22. DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT SWITCH SEATS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEMESTER! People will kill you for sitting in their seat, even though they aren't assigned.
23. Take a workout class if you want to get fit but aren't motivated enough!
24. Get to know where you live. Cruise around town and find places that interest you (i.e. a lake, park, restaurant, etc.)
25. Don't make skipping class a habit. I understand if you have a doctors appointment, family death, or just need a day to relax and get yourself together. If you think you're going to make it to graduate school with a 2.3 GPA, you're sadly mistaken. Attending class benefits you AND your professors AND your peers. Go Go Go!!!!
26. Have fun at college and live your life how you want it to be!

I hope my tips seemed at least a little useful. If anyone reading this is scared about attending college this year, or even the year after, feel free to message me and we can talk about it :)

I'm in college...what!?

It's November, which means it's been about five months since my last blog post. Normally, I would feel bad for waiting so long between posts, but hey...this means I have way more to talk about in this post! On August 21, my parents and I packed up both their Jeep and my car, and moved all my necessities to Cedar Falls. We were allowed thirty minutes to park in the parking lot outside Bender Hall, unload everything we could, and be out before we got a parking ticket. We had assumed the first time that we entered the building that we would be able to take the stairs and we'd be fine, since everyone and their mother (literally) was using the elevator. After one journey of flights upon flights of stairs, we reached my room. Did I mention I live on the 9th floor of a 12 story building? I think we all unanimously agreed that we were taking the elevator from now on. Now that I was moved into the building, I could finally relax. My roommate didn't move in until the next day. I thought everything would be great! And then thinks started getting strange.

My loft bed when I moved in

My doorboard :)

My loft bed today

After my roommate got all of her things moved in, she left with her sister and they didn't come back until about 6:30 p.m. When they did, they had alcohol with them and were planning to go to a party god knows where. They left, came back at 9 p.m., and her sister called in a hotel room and they left. She didn't come back until the next day, and even then, she was only there for a short period of time. Two days later, I woke up in the morning to her sister sleeping on our floor. Then she stopped coming back. She stopped coming to class. I didn't know what was going on, and nobody told me, not even her. One afternoon, I was laying in bed doing homework when my phone rang. I answered, and it was a representative from BedLoft, the company through which we rent our metal loft beds for our room. They informed me that my ex-roomate's mother called and wanted them to pick up her bed. That's how I found out she wasn't going to UNI anymore. She came and moved her things out a week after I last saw her, and I've been roommate-less since. It's kind of lonely living alone, but I left my room open to the option of getting a new roommate in case anyone wanted to move in. So far, no such luck. I'm a loner. 

However, loners always find a way. I joined the Panther Pep Crew at the beginning of September, and I couldn't imagine being in a more awesome group! Panther Pep Crew is a student organization consisting of, what is it now, about 30 members. We wear purple and gold bib overalls and attend as many sporting events as humanly possible, all the while spreading Panther Pride! We have special cheers and sayings, just as any good crowd does. I've met so many awesome people and made new friends through this group, and I'm so grateful that I got the opportunity to join. I also decided to get more involved and registered for Dance Marathon also. Dance Marathon is kind of like Relay for Life, but it's more about raising money for Miracle Children's Network, which our donations get sent to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for the pediatric department to make sure children in the hospital and families of the children are taken care of. My goal is small this year, since I'm new. I have set my sights on raising $250, and thanks to a gracious donation from Jan Garms, I am $20 into my goal. I would love to go around personally door to door in Elkader and ask everyone I possibly could to make a donation, but I'm not in Elkader as much as I could be. If you are reading this and would love to make a donation to Dance Marathon, here is a link to my page where you can donate :) You can also give me checks or cash if you feel those are safer options for you. 

Link to my Dance Marathon page!

A group of residents went to Chuck E. Cheese's on November 4th!

Melanie and I pep-crewing it up during a UNI Volleyball game!

So far, my classes haven't been terrible. The only class I'm doing pretty average in is math, but we all know that I am kind of deficient in that area. I have never understood math quite as good as anyone else, but the fact that I'm putting forth an effort counts at least. We are halfway through the semester so that means next semester will be all different classes, which includes Oral Communication (yay speeches...not!) I'm just lucky for the opportunity to actually be able to attend college. Not everyone has the chance to do this, and although I'll have a lot of money to pay back after I graduate, I know it will be worth it in the end. I'm starting to get sick of the food in the dining center, because they served the same thing every week, they just alternate the days. It's whatever though, I don't have much of an appetite anymore regardless. At this point I'm just looking forward to come home for a week and a half for Thanksgiving break!

Overall, my experience at college thus far has been a 7 out of 10. It would be greatly improved if I had a roommate and some friends. I love UNI, I love the professors, I love the atmosphere. I just need some more friends. Those of you reading this know the flamboyant, hyper me. I am super shy when I don't know people, though, and even though I want friends, I'm too afraid to make them. I have a bunch of friends and people that know me pretty well, but that's because I've known them for years. Maybe I'll make some friends soon, I don't know. 

University of Northern Iowa Class of 2018

Since I probably won't get around to blogging for a while, have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the rest of fall while you can! Lord knows it will be snowing before too long.