Blisters and Baseball

Be proud. I went running this morning despite waking up and finding a huge blister on my foot. When I saw that I was tempted to crawl right back into bed. But I didn't. Somehow it hurt when I was walking but didn't bother me at all when I ran. Weird. But wonderful. Also I went a lot farther on my run today and it felt sooo good! It was gorgeous outside and somehow I felt awake and energized. Definitely the best way to start a day. Also, I had an upsetting realization when I remembered that the sun will start coming up later and later. Problem. Right now, the sun isn't up when I leave but it's close enough that it's light outside. I don't really want to run in the dark. Or the freezing winter weather. Shoot. I think that if I keep doing this I will make some really great new friends though. There's these little old guys that I have seen on the path the last few times I've been. Some are kinda creepy/hobo looking, but they are super friendly. It was super foggy this morning and I could see two people walking towards me out of the fog. One was pretty big and had a big stick or something in his hand. When I was about 30 yards from them I suddenly thought maybe it was dumb of me to be heading straight toward two strangers with something that looked like it could be used as a weapon. I felt like it would be dumb for me to turn around at that point so I just kept going toward them. They ended up just being some little old guys (minus little) and they were super friendly as they passed.  That is true with a lot of the BV locals. There's some interesting people in this town but, for the most part, they are really friendly. At least from my experience.

Good news! On Monday I ordered Rosetta Stone (my hope is to learn Spanish from that so that I don't have to take 2 more semesters of Spanish class) and it came today! Super quick huh? I think I have it all installed. It was a process and freaked my computer out. I think we are good now though. I'm excited to start using it. I hope it works as good as they say!

Not so good news...I went to talk to my academic advisor today about my schedule for next semester. He basically told me that I'm crazy. That's what I wanted to hear... I am currently signed up for 17.5 credits, not including Institute. 9 of those credits are with my advisor, Professor Rodriguez. He is the head of the FCD department and so, this being SVU, he pretty much teaches every FCD class. His first concern was whether I would be able to handle that much of him. Luckily, he's a good teacher and I have liked the classes that I have taken from him so far. The problem is that his classes require a lot of work....and I have 3 of them next semester. He pretty much gave me the break-down of the classes that I am taking from him. He said 2 of them require lots of reading but aren't too difficult. Then he said that the last one is hard. He didn't try to sugarcoat that at all. He said it's a very difficult class and taking it with that many other credits will be pretty intense. He basically told me that if I don't plan on doing any extracurricular activities or having a social life next semester, I should be fine. Awesome. Also I have a test in his class tomorrow. I don't love that.

So, I have had butterflies in my stomach all day today about the Red Sox game tonight. So nervous! I got to watch the first 45 minutes before I had to go to my Communications Committee meeting. Once again, it was very hard to pull myself away. At my meeting, we were going around doing little introductions and in mine I said that I was a Red Sox fan and that I was currently dying because they were playing a huge game and I was missing it. A few minutes later Gina, the wonderful girl sitting next to me, nudged me to show me that she had brought up a live streaming of the game on her laptop. We are best friends now. I was super excited about that. I promise I paid attention to our meeting.....and the game. After that meeting, I had to go to an Activities Committee meeting. Unfortunately, Gina isn't on the Activities Committee. Fortunately, I have an app on my phone that lets me check the score. Not as good as the actual game but better than being in the dark. Unfortunately, my stress must be prolonged because the game was delayed because of rain. Nuts. Hopefully I will be able to watch them finish it.

Sweet Caroline...

:) So, I just got done watching the Red Sox game. It has been waaay too long since I was able to watch one of those. I either am busy when it's on, or it's not on my one of my few channels on my TV. Frustrating. Tonight I had some time so I decided to flip on my TV and cross my fingers that it would be on. It was! I had to leave in the middle of it for an Activities Committee meeting (which was very hard for me to do) but I made it back in time to see the ninth inning.....and Papelbon pitch. That excited me. P.S. they won! I love watching them play. It causes me stress like nothing else, but it makes me happy. Sometimes I think it was probably a bad idea for me to become a baseball fan, because when it matters (like this week) it stresses me out! When I am watching a close game, I sometimes feel like I am more nervous than the players are. When Beka came into the living room and saw me in the fetal position hugging my pillow she asked if it was a close game. At that point, it wasn't. They were doing fine. But I can never relax because I know how quickly it can change. As stressful and nerve wracking as it is for me to watch, it's almost calming at the same time. There is no better way to end a long day than with a good baseball game. Also, I've decided that I'm marrying David Ortiz. When that kid smiles it literally makes me smile. Okay, he's not really a "kid" and he could be married for all I know. But I fell in love with him tonight. 

Unfortunately, tomorrow is a huge game and I have meetings at 8 and 9. I will get to see the first hour and, with any luck, the end. My fingers are crossed for them. 

P.S. Sorry this whole post is about the Red Sox. I did do other things with the last few days, this was just the most exciting part. Is that sad? Oh well.

I DESPERATELY want to go back here! Anyone up for a quick trip to Boston tomorrow?

Best. Night. Ever!

 

Another Good Day

Um wow. The Relief Society broadcast tonight was soo good! If you didn't watch it, read or watch it when it is available online. It was incredible. I love President Uchtdorf so much. I could try and tell you the highlights, but I wouldn't do it justice. Just listen to his talk. So good.

In other news, I found somewhere to run this morning! Finally! On the outskirts of town we have a floodwall....I think that's what it is. There's a little walking path that goes along the top of it. It's not super long but luckily I'm not a marathon runner. Also, it's a gorgeous place to run. Running is so much easier to do when there are fun things to look at while you're doing it (not like the inside of a gym, wheat fields, or dairies like I had at home). To the right is the Maury River and to the left are the Blue Ridge mountains, with lots of pretty trees, etc in between. Doesn't get much better than that. The path ends where the wall (not really a wall, more like a long hill)  drops off to the river. There is a cute little bench at the end of the path where I sat and looked out over the river for a minute before heading back. Whoever put that there was genius. Such a pretty view! Maybe I will take my camera with me next time. You need to experience this too. I'm so happy I finally found a good place to go! Now I just have to find a good time. Shoot.

Also, Imari and I made our Cafe Rio salad dressing today. SO good! I have never been so excited for a salad in my life. It was delicious. Probably I will make it all the time.

I love Saturdays.

Welcome to Buena Vista, Virginia. I found this picture on Google and it looks like it was taken from pretty close to where I ran today. Pretty huh?

It's Friday Friday!!

So, it's a little late (for me anyway; don't say anything Heath) so I am going to make this brief. Today I only had one class (love Fridays!) and we just watched a movie in it. My professor wasn't even there. It was an educational one that was relevant though. Cool it. When I got home, I found that someone had brought cinnamon rolls for me and my housemates. There was a really sweet little anonymous note with them about how great we are. So nice! I wish I knew who it was from. It made my day anyway though. Then Imari and I went to Food Lion to buy ingredients to make Cafe Rio salad dressing. So excited! It will be delicious. Also we bought french bread and spinach dip and had that for lunch while watching Imari's favorite movie, Fried Green Tomatoes. It was a really good one. Oh also Imari bought a starfruit. Neither of us had ever seen one before and we were intrigued. So she bought one. I think I liked it. Definitely different, but pretty good. Plus, it looks like little stars when you cut it. Cute!

Tonight the school did another movie night (Cars 2) and Imari and I were the popcorn girls again. We are pretty pro now. I have decided that this is the new career path that I am taking. I'm buying a popcorn machine and setting up on a busy street corner. I will be rich. I also managed to not fry my hand this time. That was good news. After the movie, Beka, Imari, Kenzy, Dallin, and I went to Lehi's and had Mobo Fries. Pretty delicious. Now it's almost 2 and I am going to bed. The End.

Oh, You Know...

Sometimes it's hard to blog when the internet is down.....or you have nothing to say. I have had both of those problems this week. I think it's list time:
1. On Tuesday I donated blood! I am always terrified when I do it, but I love doing it. I think I have saved 18 lives total now. Tell me there's a better feeling? Plus, I got a free t-shirt. That's mostly why I signed up this time
2. On Tuesday I also got a graduation audit. I went and talked to the registrar and she told me where I am in regards to graduation. I had kind of figured it out by myself, but it was nice to hear it officially from her. She said that if I just do my major, I can graduate in December 2012, and if I do my major and Business minor I can graduate in April 2013. I am planning on doing the Business minor and 2013 is when I had been hoping to graduate since the start of this thing, so that was good to hear. Unfortunately, I took it really easy and took some unnecessary classes my first three semesters because I thought I had plenty of time (which I did before I decided to do a minor) so my next three semesters will be pretty intense if I want to get done on time (wow, run-on sentence much?). Is it bad that I can't even enjoy this easy semester because I am so stressed about the coming semesters? Yes, yes it is. I'm doing what I can to make my future easier. It's tricky stuff planning a life. I wish someone would do it for me. Mom?
3. On Tuesday night Melissa and I went to Lynchburg for the boys' soccer game. We stopped at Barnes and Noble first because Melissa's nook was having some struggles. While there, I bought some books. Duh. I bought "The Help" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns." Both depressing books, but I am excited for both of them. That's one of the things that I am doing this semester so I don't have to worry about it when things are crazy next semester: reading books for fun. I am going to fill all of my free time with books/movies/etc so I have that all out of the way and can focus on school next semester. Joke! But really.
4. I went to Painting yesterday. I don't know why I tell you about my painting class all the time. I guess because it's exciting for me that I'm trying something new. Professor Crawford managed to find something great to say about my ugly painting. She is wonderful. She asked what I thought of it and I told her I didn't love it. Then she told me she was going to be real with me. She said she is the cheerleader, but sometimes she has to be the coach....or something to that effect. So I was expecting her to say, nice try but you're right, it's ugly. Did she? Nope. She said it was a different style....oriental actually.....and that I could find lots of famous painters who paint like that. She said I could let that be my style if I want it to be because it's different but good. What?? I thought it looked like a 3-year-old painting. She is so great. She makes me feel good about my less-than-artistic abilities. Our assignment for this week is to paint 12 little landscapes using only 17 strokes each.....tricky! You won't be seeing any of those either. Sorry.
5. My lists are ridiculous!
6. We had our first senate meeting yesterday. I feel pretty important being one of four senators who are returning. Everyone else is new to the whole thing....even the president. It was a little chaotic last night trying to get everyone....including the president....to understand how things work in there. It will take some time for everyone to get in the swing of things, but I think we will be able to do lots of good once everyone gets a feel for it. I'm excited.
7. We had our first activities committee meeting tonight with all of the new senators. (well, only like half showed up, but that was the idea) Committees are supposed to meet once every other week. Branden decided that the activities committee will meet 2-3 times every week. Is it weird that I love that? Yes. However, remember how I have an easy schedule right now? It gives me something productive to do. And I just love it. Planning activities is my thing. It makes me happy. I love that it's so easy to get involved at my school.
8. The Red Sox are killing me. I've decided that it's probably a good thing that our TV has very few channels so I can't watch the games because I don't think I could handle it. I can barely handle the scores/recap the next day. Come on guys.
9. Virginia has some of the biggest, friendliest (aka obnoxious), most disgusting bugs I have ever seen. And there's TONS of them! Here are two of my back porch friends.

This is a leaf bug. Technical term? I have no idea. He looks like a leaf. I call him a leaf bug. They are everywhere! Kinda cool....in a sneaky creeper way. 

This is our pet spider Harry Herbert. Remember all those webs I've told you about? Here is the artist. He currently lives outside the glass door of our kitchen. Is it a little hard to eat breakfast with this kid creeping over my shoulder? Yes, yes it is. 

I watched him fix his web the other day. Creepy as he may be, that was pretty cool to watch.  Harry has helped me gain a greater appreciation for spiders and their incredibly annoying webs. That's hard work folks!

10. I miss my family A LOT! Sometimes I wonder whose dumb idea it was to go to college so freaking far away! I wish I could go home on the weekends and watch Lexi play volleyball or play Sorry with Mitch. Sigh. Okay, done whining now. I can be a big kid for 2 more years and then go live at home for the rest of forever! Joke. But really.

Okay that's enough of this crazy list. It's definitely bedtime.

 P.S. I dreamed about Harry Herbert the other night. He is obviously a very big part of my life.

A Day of Rest :)

Well I just love Sundays so much! I have made it a goal this semester to not do any homework on Sunday. Best. Plan. Ever! My Sunday evenings have always been filled with stress because of homework that is due the next morning. That is not the way a Sunday should be spent. So it won't be anymore (hopefully). It really makes the day so much more enjoyable knowing that I am free to do whatever I want. Even when I have those assignments that aren't due soon but would be good to work on when I have free time; I don't even let myself think about them on Sunday. So nice! Church was good today....minus that I had to speak in sacrament meeting. I was terrified. I've never loved public speaking, but I can handle it and it's gotten easier as I've gotten older. I almost didn't dislike speaking whenever I was a youth speaker in my home ward. Partly because I only had to talk for 5 minutes. Partly because I could talk about whatever I want. Partly because everyone in that ward knows me so well, that one talk won't change their impression of me. Partly because those wonderful people are pretty easy to entertain/make laugh. And partly because all the old people love you no matter what you say, and all the little kids don't listen. None of those things are true in a student ward....which equals not fun. I got through it though and hopefully won't have to do it again for a long long time. After church it was my turn to cook for "house dinner." We trade off every week who cooks Sunday dinner at our house. I made pasta with my mom's homemade spaghetti sauce. I have always loved that stuff so I thought it could be a good idea. Everyone else seemed to like it too so that was wonderful. (Also, yesterday I made banana bread that everyone seemed to like. I love when that happens.) The rest of the evening was spent writing in my journal, reading for institute, talking to my family, writing a letter or two (I haven't actually gotten to that part yet) and, obviously, blogging. Wow, is that really all I did today? Where did my day go? Oh well, it's Sunday so that's allowed. Well, I better get to those letters if I want to finish them tonight by a reasonable hour. Good thing I don't have class until 10 tomorrow. And Painting is cancelled! It will be a wonderful Monday. Happy Sabbath! (That's what everyone says here. I kinda like it. It's like a holiday every week!)

P.S. Imari and I played tennis yesterday! It was the first time in a very long time for both of us so we weren't expecting much. We weren't too incredible, but we surprised ourselves. We had some good volleys and I hit a couple of good shots. We planning on playing a lot more often now. I'm so excited. Even though I didn't do a wonderful job, it felt soooo good to play again! I love that game!

Letters and Laundry

I just thought this was pretty, and it kind of reminded me of my mountains.....I miss them

Oh hey, it's me. Duh. Who else would it be? Ha....um...ok....anyway.....here are some highlights of my day. I finally got my laundry done! It's exciting alright? It has been almost two weeks and I was just about out of things to wear...well not completely, but you know what I mean. Even more exciting, (I know, what could be better?) I got two letters today!! That's right, TWO! From two of my best friends. That made me ridiculously excited. Plus, they were good letters. I mostly cracked up the whole time I was reading them. I love that. Now I have to try and be witty in my responses. Nuts. Also, I started working on this weekend's painting assignment. Fail. We have to paint a landscape with only black paint. Yep, just black. We can use the paper for our white, and if you add lots of water, it lightens the black a little. Sooo hard! Mine looks terrible. We have to paint the same landscape four different times, in four different ways, with just black. Then we have to paint it in color. I got the four little black and white ones done. I was almost done with the big one, when Melissa reminded me that it was supposed to be in color. I was doing it in black and white. Nuts. I will have to work on that tomorrow. Probably pictures of this assignment won't be going on here. I don't think it's going to be one of my proudest moments. Also, I went to the play tonight. The school's theater department was doing The Wizard of Oz. They used the movie script, but they added a lot of original stuff too. It was so funny! They kind of made fun of the movie and alluded to lots of other movies too. It was obviously a low-budget production, but that made it so funny. I think that's what they were going for. Also, all of the actors were perfect for their roles! We have some good theater kids at this school. They acted and sounded just like the people from the movie. So good! Also, watching the play made me really want to go to New York and see Wicked again. I will never look at the Wizard of Oz the same after seeing Wicked. I love it soo much! But, good news, I found out at my Activities Committee meeting yesterday that Wicked is going to be in DC in October.......and the school is taking shuttles to DC for kids who want to see it! Of course I am going. I am too excited. I hope it's as good as when I saw it in New York. That's a lot to live up to. Okay, that's the end of tonight's programming. Tune in next week....or tomorrow....

Michaelangelo?

Today in painting, we had to hang our pictures up one the board and then go through them one at a time and critique them. She had some nice things to say about my clouds, and said my trees were beautiful. Yay! Now that I have her approval, I guess I will let you see them. P.S. they are better in real life. You can't really get the full effect here.

My first cloud picture....I don't love it

My second cloud picture....it looks like a volcano getting ready to erupt

Tree #1

Tree #2....I kind of like this one.

Well, I have no more excitement for you today. It was a pretty average day. Minus that I made another delicious smoothie. I am so good at those....and they are my favorite thing ever! Okay, yep, that's the end.

Another Rambly List

Maybe I will just start blogging in lists. I feel like that is a better way to express my scattered thoughts. Then I don't have to mess with transitioning smoothly and all of that junk. I could never be a writer. Okay, I'm not going to do lists every day, but I will today and probably often.

Here's Cassie's day:
1. Today was my Art History professor's birthday. She brought us cake. So great. Then she told us that her husband wrote her a poem for her birthday, but she wasn't going to read it to us because it was too emotional. Then she read it to us. Ha. It was super precious. I love her so much!
2. After my classes, I needed to go to Wal Mart for some essentials, so I decided to stop at Taco Bell and get lunch on the way. The two guys in line in front of me were obviously on a lunch break from some sort of manual labor job. I don't want to sound judgmental, but I'm just trying to give you an idea of the type of people we were dealing with here. They were dirty and dressed really grungy, and after the one guy ordered he told his friend he was going outside for a smoke. Do you have a picture in your mind? So, these guys in front of me mumbled what they wanted to the lady at the cash register. Kind of grumpy/ rude. Give me my food and don't talk to me. I have learned what it's like to be under appreciated when you are working hard, and it sucks. So, I decided to do a little better than those guys had. I smiled and was very friendly to the cashier lady. She seemed to appreciate that. She complimented me on my necklace and we just had a nice little chat. Then she told me to have a nice day and I said, "Thanks! You too!" I have never seen someone light up at the phrase like she did. She said the most sincere thank you I have ever heard to one of those mundane sayings. Then, when she gave me my food a few minutes later, she looked at me and said, "You have a really nice day, okay honey?" She said it like that was her one wish in life: that I would have a nice day. So sincere! Okay, I realize that this is a very long story for something that isn't that big of a deal, but it was fun for me. I love when I feel like I have brightened someone's day a little, and they do the same for me. It was fun.
3. After Taco Bell, I gave Little Blue his first bath in over a year. I know, sad. He very much appreciated it. Plus I vacuumed him. He loved that. Unfortunately, the ghetto car wash didn't have any dryers. So he is a little water streaked now, but he is still feeling good.
4. I have recently discovered a plus to not living in a family situation: you can eat food out of the container. I bought some ice cream today, and I fully intend on eating a couple of spoonfuls out of the carton, and putting it back in the freezer. Be disgusted all you want, but what's the point in wasting a bowl? I realized that I could drink my juice out of the carton too, but I don't know if I will go that far. It's kind of exciting though.
5. I tried to do laundry at two different houses today, didn't happen. Not having a washer and dryer in our house is super annoying! I don't know the people at the house that we are supposed to share with, so it's awkward. There is no schedule for doing laundry, so I just have to hope that when I have time to do it, no one else is doing theirs. It's a pretty tricky task. It's going to have to happen soon though because I am running out of clothes. Ugh.

Well, I think that's all the thrilling things I have for today. Sorry I'm just a boring college kid.

Happy Birthday....and other things

Happy 50th Birthday Dad!! Man that's old. Don't worry though, you don't look or act your age. Good thing too. Sometimes I hate that I live 2,000+  miles away from my family. I don't like missing things like birthdays. I missed all the big ones this year too. Sam turned 21, Lexi turned 16, I barely made it in time for Mitch to turn 13, and now Dad is 50. And all I can do is call and say Happy Birthday, hope you had a great day. Of course, maybe that's nice because it gets me off the hook for party planning and present buying (well, okay, I could still buy presents but I never know what to get anyway and shipping is expensive). Anyway, happy birthday Dad. I love you.

In other news, I painted some trees and some clouds today. The trees are okay looking but the clouds are terrible. My professor said "clouds are white, not blue." How are we supposed to paint a picture of clouds if they are white...and we aren't allowed to use white paint? Yeah, I struggled with that. It's possible though because we watched her paint clouds today and they looked incredible...so did her tree. Really I would be content to just sit and watch her paint for the whole class time. She makes it look so easy. Somehow she manages to make some blotchy blobs of paint turn into a beautiful picture. I have a long way to go. I would put pictures of my paintings on here, but I am feeling too lazy tonight. Maybe another time.

In other news, the spider that built....made....spun....created that cool web on my back porch has gotten out of hand. Our porch is COVERED in giant (yet still very cool) spider webs. They are everywhere. The guy works quick. Also, he is suuuuper creepy. I decided today that the web thing was getting out of hand and he probably had to go. Unfortunately, he is a little too big and scary for me to want to squish. Also, for some reason I feel like killing him for simply building himself some mansions is a little harsh. I don't know why I have a soft spot in my heart for this little creeper, but I kind of do. Relocation would probably be a better solution but, like I said, I don't actually want to get anywhere near him. Mostly I wouldn't be too concerned except for that I finally got a chair to go on our cute little deck. Now I just want to sit out there all the time, but I can't because there's a giant spiderweb blocking the doorway (No, literally, there is a huge one directly outside the door. You can't get out without walking into it). Rude. I don't know what I will do with this little guy. Ha sorry, you are probably wondering why half of my blog post is about a spider web....this is the excitement of my life okay!

In other news, I watched Fever Pitch the other night ($5 movies at Wal Mart are my weakness). I hadn't seen it since it first came out, and I had forgotten how much I liked it. Plus, I became a Red Sox fan since I watched it last, so I really loved it this time. Unfortunately, it just made me want to go to Fenway suuuuuuper bad. Like super super bad. Also, it made me really envious of the guy with his season tickets that he gets every year that are wonderfully located. So spoiled! That's it, I'm living in Boston when I am done with school. I will get rich and have season tickets that are right up there with the players. Oh wait, my plan to marry a member of the Red Sox team will help that out a lot. Great! For real though, who wants to go to a baseball game? I'm dying here.

In other news, I'm not kidding about the people outside my window late at night. Every night they are out there having a good time, but they don't show up until about 1:00 am. So weird. I wish my dang tree wasn't blocking my view of them.

In other news, it's bedtime.

We Will Never Forget

"We have seen the state of our Union in the endurance of rescuers, working past exhaustion. We've seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers -- in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. We have seen the decency of a loving and giving people who have made the grief of strangers their own. My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of our Union -- and it is strong....

...We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.

It is my hope that in the months and years ahead, life will return almost to normal.  We'll go back to our lives and routines, and that is good.  Even grief recedes with time and grace. But our resolve must not pass. Each of us will remember what happened that day, and to whom it happened. We'll remember the moment the news came -- where we were and what we were doing. Some will remember an image of a fire, or a story of rescue. Some will carry memories of a face and a voice gone forever."

-President George W. Bush

September 20, 2011

I Love Adventures!

I love weekends sooo much! I don't have very much homework this weekend (I know, I was shocked too) so I have been trying to find ways to entertain myself. After class yesterday, I went to Wal Mart and then worked on homework for the afternoon. Last night the school was showing Pirates of the Caribbean 4, and I was running the popcorn machine so I had to be there 30 minutes early. About 20 minutes before I had to leave, I decided to watch TV for a minute. Guess what was on! Hitch! My all time favorite movie. I was so upset that I had to leave just as it was starting, but I went anyway. Imari, Camille, and I were the popcorn girls all night. SVU has a popcorn machine that we get out at all of our movie nights, and some other random activities. It's free so EVERYONE wants some. I never realized how stressful it was to be working the popcorn machine. You can only pop so much at one time, so you end up filling 6 ish bags and then having to wait for a while for more to pop. Kids have to wait in line for a long time, and the line is sooo long! Also, kids like to send up one friend to get popcorn for the whole group. That's frustrating when you think there are 10 people in line, but it's really more like 20. One girl wanted 5 bags! 5! I don't think the people behind her loved that. Also, there was this 12-year-old kid there (not a student, a sibling.....I was concerned at first) who just kept coming back for more. I think by the end of the movie he had 3 or 4 bags....and he didn't even go to our school! Also, I burned my hand on the hot popper part. That hurt super bad and there is a big red mark on the back of my hand now....almost exactly where my other burn just recently healed from. Appreciate your popcorn people! It's not an easy job. We had fun though. We didn't get to watch any of the movie, but luckily I had seen it before. Imari and I decided that being popcorn girls could be a good way to make new friends. We introduced ourselves and chatted with everyone that got popcorn from us. Some loved that....some didn't seem to as much. Ha! Best part of the night? After we got done at Pirates, we went back to my house. Imari turned on the TV hopeful that we would be able to see the end of Hitch and guess what.....it had started over! It was at almost the exact spot that we had left it. I was soooo happy!

This morning I got up early to go on an adventure! (we decided that we want to go on an adventure every weekend) Imari's friend Melody had invited us to go to Foam Henge with her and a group of people. For those of you who don't know this area very well, there is absolutely nothing in BV, but drive 10 minutes and there's all kinds of crazy, ghetto, fun stuff. We are planning on seeing more of those things on other days, but today was Foam Henge: a life size model of Stone Henge made out of styrofoam! I know what you're thinking, I thought the same thing. You just have to see it. It's super funny.

Then we went to the volleyball game at W&L. Our girls were playing really well, but we didn't stay to see how it turned out. Hopefully they did great. My hopes are high. Mostly watching them made me wish that I could go home and watch Lexi play. I'm sure she's doing great.

I don't know what the rest of the evening will hold, but hopefully it's lots of fun!

Pretty legit huh?

Imari and I with Merlin....apparently he created Stone Henge

This is me trying to show you that it's styrofoam

Also we found this snake skin. It was huge. That made me suuuuuper nervous! Luckily we didn't find its owner.

Also we went to the zoo. We decided that we would save the actual zoo-going for another day, so we just took a picture with the elephant outside.

P.S. I finally figured out how to change the background on this thing. So, annoying as it may be, I will probably change it all the time.

Slightly Scatterbrained

Well, life hasn't been anything too new and exciting. I don't have any super cool stories to tell. So, here is one of Cassie's lists of random happenings and thoughts:

1. My professor quoted "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" in class today, and was very upset by the one person in the class who hadn't seen it.

2. I went to Institute...and loved it. Elder and Sister Crowther are just the best. He was on one today too! So funny!

3. I pulled my guitar out for the first time in 4 months. I've forgotten everything. My guitar teacher is going to hate me. Nuts.

4. I sat outside, ate pizza, and chatted with some pretty great people. We weren't even trying to do homework while we talked, we were just taking it easy.

5. I tried to figure out my class schedule for the next two years so that I can graduate on time. I am now regretting how easy I am taking it this semester. I am already stressing about how hard the next three semesters will be because of how easy this one is.

6. I may have decided to do a minor in Business. I have recently decided that I feel like a slacker for only having one major and no minor. If I don't care about people judging me for being lazy, graduating in May of 2013 will be cake. I feel like I should push myself a little bit though.

7. I burned 525 calories in a 45 minute work-out tonight. Whooo! And Imari and I are definitely sore from the work-out videos we have done the last two nights. They are pretty entertaining though.

8. For those of you who have been losing sleep over this, I decided that zebra print is the shower curtain that would go nicely with my cactus wallpaper. Okay, not really. I do however love zebra print, and it was calling my name so I bought it. It looks terrible with the cactus wallpaper. Melissa and I decided that we would hang our "less-than-professional" paintings in that bathroom too, just to give it a little more.....tackiness, ugliness, clashiness, character....take your pick. 

9. Speaking of painting: we had painting yesterday and we had to show the whole class what we had done and then Professor Crawford talked about it. She didn't have much to say about my actual painting, except that the tape that I used to make a border looked really nice (that has nothing to do with painting skill whatsoever). Our other assignment was to try a bunch of different techniques and just play with the paint a little bit. After she talked about mine she said, "Have you ever water-colored before?" I said, "Not even a little." She said, "Huh, could have fooled me!" That gave me a little ray of hope.

10. This is a super weird list since each number is pretty much a paragraph. Oh well, I like numbers better. I have always hated dividing things up into paragraphs and making them run smoothly together.

11. I don't know if I told you this, but my mattress is suuuuper squeaky! Like ridiculously so. All of my housemates can hear every time I even touch my bed. That makes me super self-conscious for some reason so I mostly never use my bed except to sleep. I also try to get in and out super quickly and quietly (impossible) and once I'm in, I don't move around. I told my RA about this problem. He laughed and said, "Welcome to SVU." Great.

12. The blinds in my room have a creeper hole. Literally at eye-level one of the blinds is missing so you can creep right out. Unfortunately, there is a tree right outside my window, so I can't see much.

13. Yesterday morning, I discovered a HUGE spiderweb on my back porch. Like really huge. It was all sparkly because of the dew and looked kind of beautiful, in a disgusting way. I took lots of pictures of it. Then I looked at my neighbors' porches on either side of me, they both had giant spiderwebs too! Crazy!

14. It hasn't rained since I complained about the rain two days ago. I'm so powerful. I'm sure it will come tomorrow now that I've said this though.

15. I hate when it is 1:00 in the morning and I am going to bed and I can hear people talking and laughing outside. A) Why is there never anything fun going on outside my window during the day? B) Why are you out so late? C) Why are you so loud? D) Why didn't you invite me to come play with you??!!

Well, again with knowing that I have more things that I was planning on writing about, and not being able to remember them now. Sorry. 

Pretty cool, huh?

I know, I'm artistic

I also found the creator himself, but I couldn't get a very good picture of him.  Plus he was a creep.

Rain, Rain Go Away

I don't have much to say today. I think of things sometimes that make me think, "Oh! I should put that in my blog!" Then I forget what they are. Oops. I mostly just went to class today and then did homework. I'm a pretty boring college student. I got a nap in today though. Those are kind of a rare thing for me, but I decided that I had time today. It was nice. I find that as soon as I open a textbook, it is suddenly nap time. Problem. I also took a break from homework to do an ab work-out video with Imari. It was pretty fun. Also pretty exhausting. We felt very awkward and uncoordinated, so we closed all of the blinds and covered the window on our door with some paper. Melissa was in the room doing homework so we told her she wasn't allowed to turn around. I felt dumb, but it was fun. We are excited to be sore tomorrow. Our plan is to do it at least every other day. Eventually we will have a 6-pack like the girl on the video. I'm excited for that part! After our workout, I made us a delicious raspberry smoothie! (Thank you Walmart for the delicious bag of frozen raspberries and thank you Grandma for the Magic Bullet!)

I got a card in the mail today from my momma! (And talked to her on the phone) That pretty much made my day. It wasn't very long and it didn't say too much, but it definitely made me smile. Especially because it was completely unexpected. Thanks Mom!

Also, it's raining. It has been raining for the last few days, and it will continue to rain for at least the rest of this week (that's as far in advance as I can see the weather). I used to love rain. Living in Virginia has made me hate it. All I wanted to do today was sit in my house, in my sweats, snuggled in a blanket with some hot chocolate and a chick flick. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a "rain day" so I had to go to class. I don't know if I can handle a week (or more) of this. Weather-related depression here I come. Maybe I can find someone to puddle jump with me this week. That would make the rain a little more enjoyable.

P.S. It was brought to my attention that I put my address on here wrong. Oops. It was also brought to my attention that maybe putting my address on here isn't a great idea (creepers, etc.). So, if you aren't a creeper, tell me if you want my real address so that you can send me a present....I sure do love those!

P.S. Again: No this isn't a "P.S. Again" because I completely spaced it when I was writing this originally. Why would you think that? Anyway, today is my best friend Taylor's Birthday!!! She's still a little kid, but now she is an older little kid. Happy Birthday TG! Love you lots!!

Labor Day Weekend

Hey kids. So here I am at the end of my Labor Day Weekend. I don't love that. Is it bad that I've only had a week of classes and I already am wanting to be done? Yes, yes it is. We tried to come up with some super fun plans to do this weekend, but we didn't end up doing anything too thrilling. It was a good weekend though. On Saturday night, we had a barbecue with all of the people that live in our little housing complex. That was fun. I love barbecues. We met some people and ended up sitting in a big circle and talking for a really long time. Sometimes that's my favorite thing to do. Then we went to Imari's and watched Legally Blonde 1&2 (which I got for $6!) while Imari and I painted pictures. Mine were really funny looking, but it was fun.

After church yesterday, we had our first family dinner! We decided that we will take turns every Sunday cooking dinner for the house after church. Jauphlynn cooked yesterday.....it was delicious! Melissa and I decided that it would be fine if she just cooked every week.....I don't think my PB&J is going to measure up.

Today, we drove to Roanoke to pick up a friend's luggage from the Greyhound bus station that they had lost on her way out here. She went over a week without any of her stuff! Luckily we got it today so all is well again. After that we went to Chik-fil-a for lunch. After eating our chicken nuggets, Imari and I decided we needed to try one of their new peach milkshakes. Imari had made friends with the manager (she likes old people) so she asked him if they were any good. He assured us that if we really liked peaches then we would really like their milkshakes. He also said that if we didn't, he would give us our money back. He was right. They were DELICIOUS! We plan on driving to Roanoke often for peach milkshakes.

After we got back, it was time for FHE. We were having FHE with the whole ward, because they haven't divided us up into our families yet. We had it at our bishop's house which is about 20 minutes away from campus. It was worth the drive. His house is GORGEOUS! It's ridiculously huge and fancy and has just about everything you could need for entertaining a group of 18-25 year-olds. It was awesome! The favorite room was this home-theater type room that was completely sports themed. The walls were completely covered with autographed jerseys, baseballs, pictures, and plaques. I have no idea how he got all of that, but it was sooo cool! They also had a really nice deck/sun room. I want one of those so bad. It was super nice. He told us that this was now the ward house. I'm okay with that. I want to be best friends with them so that I can go hang out at their house all the time.

Well that's it for now. I'm not excited to go to school tomorrow, but that's kind of what I'm here for.

TGIF!

Friday! I love that day. I only had one class today and it didn't start until 10. I loved that. I had leftover mac n' cheese for lunch, and then Melissa and I worked on our homework for painting. We were supposed to copy a painting by a professional. I sure hope I learn a lot from this class. At this point, I don't think painting is my calling. It's fun though.

This is the original....what it is supposed to look like.

Here is my version. Give me some time. Maybe by the end of the semester it will have a better resemblance....hopefully.

After painting, Imari, Melissa, and I went to Goodwill to get stuff for the 90's themed dance tonight. That was fun. Goodwill is a pretty wonderful place...especially if you are trying to dress crazy for a dance. The place is always packed with SVU students on the day of a themed dance. I'm pretty sure the people love us for coming and buying what no one else ever would. We find some gems. Then we went to the dance. It was pretty great. They mostly played 90's music (Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Spice Girls, N'Sync, Aaron Carter, etc). Mostly that stuff is my favorite so that made it really fun. Also, my outfit made me want to dance like crazy. So much fun! The whole thing was great until just as I was leaving. Every dance they have drawings for prizes. Usually the prizes are pretty great. They had already done the drawing before we left....and, of course, I didn't win. I NEVER win. As I was walking out the door, Joe (Dean of Students/Advisor for Student Government/A zillion other things/the greatest guy I've ever met) informed me that after they had done the drawing he had the bucket of tickets, and decided to randomly pull one out. Guess whose name was on it. Yeah.....mine. My name would get drawn when it doesn't count! I was sooo mad! Why couldn't he have pulled that one out two minutes earlier?? I told him he was welcome to get me a prize anyway. I'm sure I will get my prize next week sometime.....yeah.

We decided that the 90's were a fashion faux pas in and of themselves.

Also, HAPPY 20th EMILY!!!!! Love you!

P.S. I have been craving a Fenway Frank for the last few days. It's killing me. I want to go to Boston sooo bad!

Ducks and Dancing!

Well, today wasn't anything too thrilling. It was good though. My Art History class got cancelled. I like when that happens. Only, it was cancelled because my professor had to take her husband to the hospital. That makes me feel bad. Also, I got a very precious present in the mail today! I loved that. For those of you who didn't send that, my address is 330 E 30th Street Apt 313 Buena Vista, VA 24416. Feel free to send me presents. I even have a mailbox! (it's a little lonely right now though...hint hint) I tried to go for a run today for the first time in weeks. I don't know if you knew, but Virginia is soooo steamy hot! I tried to push through it but it was not super fun and refreshing like I like it to be. Also, there is literally nowhere to run in this town! BV isn't even a mile long! And for someone who isn't interested in running up hills...yeah, there's no hope. I will keep trying though. Probably I will have to start going later so it's not so hot though. After my run...if you can call it that....I went to an activities committee meeting. We have a 90's themed dance tomorrow so we are getting ready for that. We didn't accomplish much but it was a super fun meeting. Branden (the in-charge kid) left to get some paintbrushes for our poster. While he was gone, we worked on figuring out what 90's songs we wanted to play at the dance.....aka we had a dance party. We were dancing a singing to Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears very crazily and very loudly. When Branden got back, he informed us that he could hear us long before he got to the building. Ha! He also brought a bag of chocolate with him. That made the "meeting" even more fun. Also, we fed the baby ducks and I got a T-shirt! The joys of being involved. Now I am just chilling like I didn't get to last night. Try to give me homework right now professor! I'm not doing it! Ha okay I'm done. Goodnight.