Dear Mother Nature

Dear Mother Nature,

It's almost January now and there hasn't been any snow. I'm not exactly complaining because it means there isn't ice covering the roads making travel almost impossible. However, some snow would be nice this year.

And if there was a snow storm, the air would be cleaner. Everything would be white instead of the brown decorating the ground and the horizon. 

If there was snow storm, I could make hot cocoa, grab my favorite book, fuzzy blanket, and sit by the window watching the big fluffy flakes drift to the ground.

I am sure all the ski lodges would be very grateful if it began to snow. 

If there was snow, I could build a snowman much taller than I am with an orange carrot nose and a purple scarf. 

With snow, people could go sledding down steep hills in the mountains. 

Hopefully snow comes soon!

Sincerely,

Me

A Christmas Time

This week has been one of the funnest and happiest weeks this year. Everything seems perfect.

I've been surrounded by friends and family and holiday cheer.

I've seen Christmas lights floating on a pond and large oak trees lit up with Christmas-colored lights. Houses everywhere are lit up in red, green, blue, purple, and white lights to celebrate the season. Nativity scenes are set up on front yards and public shopping areas.

I've seen many people give up their time and their money to help another family in need. But to them, it doesn't seem like they are giving anything up; in fact, it feels as if they are fuller instead of emptier.

Families come together after being apart to celebrate Christ's birth. Joy and laughter bubbles around homes making it impossible for someone to feel sad.

And now, today is Christmas day. To me it seems fitting for Christmas to be on a Sunday. I went to my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) where, for a whole hour, we sang several Christmas songs: Joy to the World, Far, Far Away on Judea's Plain, Silent Night, and I heard the Bells. By the time I left, I felt warm inside and wished we could have stayed an hour longer.

The day has only begun and soon I will be with my whole family and I wouldn't want it any other way. Merry Christmas!

Sleeplessness

Sleep is eluding me again. I think it is because my brain is thinking about a million things all at once.

Last night, sleep avoided me but it was partly my fault. I was reading a very good book and I couldn't put it down until about two in the morning. But then I couldn't sleep. When I did sleep, I had nightmares.

The first nightmare I remember having was about my apartment. Yesterday, I was able to get my apartment keys and start moving in. In my dream, I lost my apartment key. I don't know how I got into the apartment, but I did. I then went to my room but the key to my room in the apartment refused to work.

Soon, my dreams shifted and I was staring at my computer screen. I wanted to check my scores for my classes, even though I already knew I passed them all. When I logged on, I was relieved to see a list of my classes with a green phrase next to each one:  "You Passed!" However, as I watched the screen, the words turned red and one by one, the words "You Passed" changed to a horrible red word: "Failed." I started freaking out in my dream and I was terrified. Would I have to pay back financial aid? Could I move forward with my classes? Would I be allowed to have financial aid again?

But my dream changed again and I was at work. I was working even though I knew I had quit a few weeks ago. However, I couldn't leave because I was needed to get the job done so I stayed. I got behind on a food order and every time I put onion rings in the fryer, a co-worker would eat them the minute they were done. Finally, I told them to stop it and went to put a new batch of onion rings in the fryer. But right as I was about to do that, my manager had drained the oil out so she could wash the fryers. She wasn't trying to be malicious, she was just trying to do her job. Then so many orders started coming through and no one else would do their job. In my dream, I was taking orders at the front counter and getting orders from the drive-thru and had no time to cook their food.

Finally, I woke up at around six in the morning and stayed awake for a few hours after that; but soon my stomach was growling and I knew I had to get up and start my day.

Let's hope I get better sleep tonight.

A few things

Now that a semester of college and finals is behind me, I'll share a few things I've learned.

1. The freeway is a pain and you never know what to expect. I hated those mornings when traffic started out great and I was singing along to the car radio when...traffic jam. I remember one morning the traffic was terrible and when I finally got past it, five cars had been pulled over but they weren't even on the freeway; they were on a different road. I guess curiosity gets the best of us sometimes. Then there was the morning when a beautiful, bright yellow sports car drove into a ditch and a white car was rear-ended. That poor white car had to be loaded up onto a truck while the back bumper dragged on the road as the truck drove away. The lesson is:  plan for delays.
   
2. Expect your professors to be brilliant and crazy. My English professor had great suggestions for writing a well-written essay. However, you never knew what kind of behavior you would get that day. One morning, she yelled at another professor for not getting out of the classroom in time and making her wait to start her own class. A few swear words were angrily thrown across the classroom and the other professor stormed out of the classroom saying, "I will be reporting this!" Every Monday and Wednesday after that was entertaining. Each professor was civil towards each other but you could cut the tension with a knife. And if your math professor says, "Bloop, bloop," don't be alarmed. He's just thinking.
   
3. When reading graded papers, hold the paper away from you. My English professor was amazing and I enjoyed her class but my papers always came back to me smelling like rotten coffee and cigarettes. To be honest, she always smelled like rotten coffee and cigarettes; especially her breath. But like I said, brilliant professor and I loved her class.
   
4. Sleep is mandatory. There were several nights when I stayed up too late trying to do homework but when morning came, I was too exhausted to pay attention in my classes. I even fell asleep in one class but that class was astronomy and the chairs reclined and were soft and the room was dark and warm. In a room like that, it's hard to stay awake even on a good day. Sleep=staying focused in class. Staying focused in class=better grades.
   
5. Manage your time. Procrastination is my own personal downfall. If I used my time to my advantage, I probably wouldn't have had to stay up late doing homework (see #4). When I procrastinate, I don't do well on my homework assignments. Use time wisely!
   
6. Do nothing. Sometimes, I would get completely stressed out to the point I'd start crying. When I got to that point, I realized I needed to do nothing. I would email friends, read a book, or watch a movie. Naps are also an amazing thing, even if sleep doesn't come; just laying down and relaxing helps a lot. After doing nothing, I would get back to work and feel much better.
   
7. I'm not sure the "Freshman 15" is true. To be honest, I think I lost weight because of all those stairs I climbed and running across campus (which is not a small campus and for me it involved crossing campus and two streets in ten minutes). All I know is my jeans are bigger than they used to be.
   
8. Ask questions. In my astronomy class, I asked so many questions my professor actually knew who I was. Asking questions helped me learn better and enjoy the class more and it also helped me stay awake and focused.
   
9. Eat food! I forgot to eat breakfast one morning and my stomach wouldn't stop growling at me. Of course, it would gurgle during the most silent part of class making it sound much louder than it actually was. For me, I have to eat. If I don't eat, I get sick, literally sick. I feel as if I'll throw up, I get massive headaches, and I get dizzy. So food is a little bit important.
   
10. Being with friends during the weekend should be required. I loved knowing the week was done and now I could spend one night watching a good movie with friends. I couldn't do something every weekend but it was great when I could.

Spring semester doesn't start until January ninth. For almost a whole month I'm not going to worry about homework or classes. I'm going to enjoy my Christmas break with family and friends.

Addiction

Yesterday, after taking two finals, my brain felt slightly fried. Not only was my brain fried, but I felt extremely frustrated. You see, my math professor showed up 35 minutes late for our final, cutting precious time by 35 minutes. Even though he is giving us extra credit points on other tests for his tardiness, I still feel annoyed and hope I still did well with the shorter amount of time.

So the best way to take care of a fried brain and frustrations is to watch a TV show on DVD for hours and hours. 

I've never seen The Vampire Diaries before because I didn't want to watch another thing about vampires. It's one of those "been there, done that" things. But it seemed like a brainless and entertaining thing to do.

And now I'm addicted. I watched that show for about 9 hours straight and didn't even crawl into bed until about two in the morning. To be honest, I'm amazed I made it to bed. I didn't want to go to bed but my eyes kept closing and I began missing important things in the show.

People are stupid in TV shows. Has anyone else noticed that? As I was watching this show, I'd yell at the TV screen saying, "No! Don't let him in! He's a vampire!...Seriously? You let him in?" In the show, there is a good vampire who tries to save this girl. He tells Elena to take her friend home and make sure no one kills her or else she'll be a vampire. So I say, "Seriously, Stefan? Sure, send a defenseless, weak human home to watch over Bonnie. And you know she won't be smart. They'll go to Elena's house because Damon has already been invited in. You know they won't go to Bonnie's because no vampires have ever been in there." 

So I am addicted to a TV show. 

But that's fine with me...as long as I finish writing my paper today.

Finals!

Finals are quickly approaching and...I'm really freaking out. Next week is when finals start! If I fail, I'm going to cry.

Lucky for me, I only have three finals instead of four. My English class doesn't have a final. Technically. I'm just supposed to rewrite two previous papers and make them perfect; then turn them in by December 15th.

Then there is the astronomy final. If there was one class I'm absolutely terrified of failing, it would be astronomy. Oh I love the class, don't get me wrong, but it's complicated. I can't remember hard core facts (like which moon has liquid water, or which one is being squeezed by Jupiter's gravitational pull causing the moon to heat up and have plate tectonics or something like that, or what that chart thing is called that measures the size and temperature of main stream stars). And then there is the moon. That is my own personal downfall. I never thought it would be so difficult to remember the phases of the moon. Sure, I could remember the phases but the questions are "if the moon is high in the sky at night, what phase is that?" Or, "What is the phase of the moon tonight?" Maybe I'll look at the moon the night before my astronomy final so I'm prepared...or just Google it.

My elementary ed class shouldn't be too difficult. Six prompts, choose three to write about, open note and open book. I hope it's as easy as it sounds.

Math. I have mixed feelings about this one. Honestly, math has been fun for me this semester. Unbelievable, right? Sure, there was that chapter about adding polynomials and I totally failed that test but I've gotten at least 90% on the rest of my tests. That has to be a good sign, right? But then there are word problems and mean trick questions. How many of those questions will be on the final?

One thing is certain:  I will be studying until I can study no more. Then after finals, I'll look forward to a nice, long Christmas break to rest my fried brain before January comes and it starts all over again.

Skirts

I love skirts and I love dresses. They make me happy.

Tonight I went to Walmart not expecting to find a skirt. But there it was. If I said it was red floral with a dark blue background, you probably wouldn't think it's a cute skirt. But trust me, it is and I'm in love. And I have red high heels (four inch heels, pointy toe, painful, but I love 'em anyway) that go perfectly with my new skirt.

Wanna know the best part about my skirt? For being so lovely, it cost me less than $20 which is a bargain when I've found ugly skirts for $40 or more. I love Walmart.

So now I'm sitting around wearing my new skirt and red high heels at 11:20pm wishing I had somewhere to go to wear my skirt.

But alas, it is 11:20pm and I have nowhere to wear a skirt especially when I have a textbook that needs to be read and classes to attend to bright and early.

However, when Sunday rolls around, you can bet I'll be wearing my below the knee, red floral and dark blue background skirt with my red four inch high heeled shoes.