Naps and Nuggets

So today is Sunday so that means church and yummy food with Cory and Shelbey! I woke up really excited, although I only had five hours of sleep.
I threw on my go-to church clothes. Nice jeans and a decent shirt, slipped on a pair a sandals, grabbed my bible and purse, left, ran back inside because I forgot makeup, ran back out and finally made it to Cory's place.
Valley Grove Baptist Church is one of the few churches that I've been in that just feels good to be in. No one is judging. No one is paying attention. No one is scrutinizingly watching, reporting back to my parents about my every move. I don't have to be the angel. I don't have to volunteer. I don't even have to act like I'm okay. I can cry and sing and heal. I can just enjoy God and worship in this wonderful place, without fear of others talking about me behind my back... because I don't know anyone there.
The message was really wonderful this morning and exactly what I needed to hear. We are currently in the process of finding a new pastor so we have guest speakers each week. This week was Glen Schmucker who talked about "God helps those who..."
At first he said that he had once believed that the sentence was finished with"...help themselves", but he now realizes that God helps those who "cannot help themselves". Thank you God for getting me up this  morning to hear that. You know exactly what to say when I'm at my lowest.
After church Cory and I went to H.E.B. (I love love love love love that store!) and bought chicken for lunch. We were going to make wings, but decided that our combined talent in cooking wasn't quite at that level yet. I do know how to make fried chicken, however and we decided to stay with that safe, yet delicious alternative.
We also went to Chicken Express and got about 30 packets of Serendipity... and that's all. I was afraid they would look at us strangely, but the guy just handed it over like it was no big deal. I guess he's used to seeing addicts like Cory come in. (I tried Serendipity for the first time today and am hooked).
It was either all the cayenne pepper we used in the batter or the smoke from the oil, but my eyes were killing me. They felt like raisins. Like sunburned raisins.
After the chicken was cooled and all of our homemade sauces completed we sat down to eat. It was so delicious! Definitely one for the cookbook :)

After that we just sat on the couch, feeling super full and really pleased in our new chef statuses.
I took Cory home around 3:45 and came back to the apartment ready for an afternoon of essay writing so that I could just hang out in the evening without being all stressed out. I laid down (my most comfortable position for writing because I can't focus when sitting up #ADHDkidproblems) and promptly fell asleep on my book.
I woke up about four hours later. My room was dark and there was drool all over my face and the library book that is due in a couple days. My life is like a movie now!? ggggrrrreeeaaaattttt....

Anyway I got up, starving and went and made dinner. I laid back down, started writing and didn't stop for about 45 minutes. The minimum was two pages and I wrote just over three. Oh yeah...
After happy dancing around my room and posting an excited message on facebook I finished editing it and sent it to my email for printing tomorrow morning.

Just a couple more short essays and I am done!!! WOOT WOOT!!

Parking and Optimus Prime

This happened last week, but a lot has happened and I forgot to post it: 

Today was an interesting, yet unorthodox day. I wouldn’t say that I learned much, other than the fact that 20 minutes is not enough time to get to class.

I woke up before my alarm went off to the loud buzzing of a text message arriving. I keep my phone on my headboard so it shakes the whole bed frame when it vibrates (Note to self: Find a new place for cell phone at night). My boss, Nichole was asking if anyone could come to work this morning because, at the daycare, they were out of ratio for children to teachers. They needed one more person in Nursery 2.

Now, I don’t have class till 11, but I needed to go to the library to find an article. Feeling guilty I thought through my options. I could go to work and skip homework (Yeah Mom, I know. The homework that I should have done on my three day weekend...) or tell Nichole that I was busy and get my stuff done.

Well, I decided to try and do both. I had thought of an idea for an article when I was going to bed last night and quickly hopped out of my warm sheets and pulled out my magazines. As an avid day care teacher and babysitter I always keep a large stack of Parent Life magazines laying around. Thank God I do because in one of them was an article that I could use for my class. Hallelujah praise the LORD!

I told Nichole that I could work till 10:30 which gave me 20 minutes to get to class. Pulling on the nearest tshirt and slashing mascara on my still groggy eyes I dashed out the door.

I went to work and it was pretty uneventful. I played with a few kids and then put them down for nap. That’s what I love about working at a daycare- the naps. While it is sometime’s hard to get kids to lay down, or calm down for that matter, I just love watching them sleep. Kids are completely different beings asleep and awake, and I love how one frustrating kiddo can turn into such a serene baby if they can get their eyes closed.

Anyway I realized that 10:30 was quickly approaching, and feeling nervous I excused myself, clocked out and ran to my car. I drove to school, praying that there would be a parking spot. I hadn’t ever gotten there that late and I knew that I might have to hike from the back parking lot.

When I got to school I felt my stomach drop. Not only were there no spots available in ANY of the commuter parking lots, but there were at least 20 cars winding in and out of the rows of all four. If you do the math that’s me against about 80 other frustrated people trying to park in spaces that DON’T EXIST.

I wrote a letter:

{Dear Tarleton,

If you would like record breaking attendance I would suggest you first make sure you have room for those students. Not only was I “invited” to “move off campus” but now I can’t even go to class because there is nowhere to park. I drove around with a CARAVAN of cars today, looking for parking spots. If someone did pull out of their spot, someone further up the line would take their place, leaving me red faced and clutching the steering wheel like it was a lifeline.

Here’s an idea- instead of paying people to sit on their butts and pick weeds why don’t you hire someone to build a parking garage. I don’t care if the campus looks pretty when I’m RUNNING TO CLASS!

If you don’t fix the parking lot (or lack thereof) you might not have record breaking attendance next semester, because all of us commuters might be inclined to go to a different school, that at least pretends to want us there.

Yours Truly,

Every commuter that was late for class}

Yeah... I’m a bit upset with the situation. And I don’t think I’m the only one. I’ve heard numerous people saying that there’s not enough room. 

If this continues I will find a way to fuse myself into a transformer. That way when I roll up to school I can just convert into a robot and walk into class without having to find a spot to park. 

Autarchy and Amputees

So I feel like I'm being a complete control freak. I'm trying this crazy new "diet" which really isn't a diet but a complete and utter change in lifestyle. It's working pretty good, but with so many changes going on in my life I don't know how long I can keep it up.
Anyway, I feel like my new food choices have also affected the way that I am keeping my apartment. It's not a bad thing- it's just that I'm freaking out over every little thing that's out of place. My roommate probably hates me but I've labeled all the cabinets and divided up our space meticulously. It may be that  I'm just desperately trying to stay on track with the food stuff and if I have a messy kitchen I won't feel like cooking, so I am being a neat freak right now.
Oh well...
Also I would like to point out that I have seen more amputees this week than I have ever seen in my life. I don't know if we just have a whole lot of soldiers on our campus or what, but I would like to tip my hat to them... that is if I was wearing a hat. They'll just have to be happy with me flipping my bangs for now.

Janitors and Juice Breaks

Yum... juice. I was really thirsty so I bought some from STARBUCKS in the library :) This will probably be my only Starbucks this semester because I'm really stingy when it comes to stuff like that.

Anywho I'm sitting here drinking this wonderful blend of fruit flavored goodness when this janitor lady  passes by. I can hear her cleaning the bathroom for a few minutes when someone radio's her on her walkie talkie. I can't hear what they said but it must have been important because she yells "10-4!" and takes off running...

Oh man guys... we've got a janitorial emergency on Campus today! There's no more toilet paper on the first floor common area! AHHHHHH!!!

(P.S. Just to avoid anyone thinking that I'm demeaning her job- please remember that I was a janitor this summer and hold every right to be sarcastic when it comes to this matter. That is all).

Onward and Upward

Moving has got to be one of the worst things in the world. There is nothing that truly compares to the grueling work that you are subjected to when packing up your closest possessions. This summer I've moved twice- from college to home and from home back to college. The first time I moved I literally threw everything into boxes. It was finals week and I had to be out 24 hours after my last test. As someone who gets stressed in timed situations I was definitely not in the mood to organize.
I justified my actions by the fact that I had a completely free summer ahead of me and would have time to organize when I got home. Unfortunately, as all good procrastinators will tell you, time seemed to fly by. I worked at a summer camp Sunday night through friday afternoon and my weekend consisted of sleeping, sleeping, hanging out with friends, filling my car up with gas and sleeping. There was really only a couple times that I truly tried to fix some of the messy boxes that I had unceremoniously dumped in my bedroom.
Fortunately summer camp ended two weeks before I was due back at Tarleton. This meant that I had all that time to pack. During that week I attempted to organize but found out about halfway through that the only thing I was doing was moving the stuff from one cluttered box to another.
My parents left on Thursday to help my sister, Kathryn settle into her new dorm (widdle freshman!) and  so I had the house to myself for three whole days. Thank the Lord Almighty, Tom Bergeron and all the meerkats in the world that I had that time and space to myself. I moved everything I was taking back to college OUT of my room and finally had the time and patience to clean and organize everything that was staying.
I stayed up till about 5 in the morning the day before I left finishing laundry, then slept for four hours, loaded up the car and headed out. Luckily it's only a two hour drive and I kept myself alive by chugging coffee like it was living water and blaring my Veggie Tales soundtrack.
When I got there I got acquainted with my new apartment. I'm sharing it with my roommate from last year, Shelbey, but this time we each get our own rooms. As juniors in college it's probably something we deserve by now...
The other girls that were living there were not quite moved out so there stuff was dumped into one corner of the living room. I quickly moved all of my stuff in- I've watched too many episodes of Special Victims Unit to feel comfortable leaving both my car and my front door unlocked for an extended period of time.
Once everything was in I crashed. Spread out my sleeping bag and crashed. The amount of sleep I had had in the last few days had not been good to say the least, and I wasn't about to unpack everything on an empty tank. Naps are glorious. I'll probably talk more about them later, because I do believe that they may be the only reason that I'm still alive at this point.
So there I was- with a room full of boxes, sleeping on the flood because my car isn't big enough to fit a mattress in it.
Like I said earlier... moving is one of the worst things in the whole entire world.