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.