Another one down

I assassinated Rashidat today. My next target will be more difficult. He lives right next door to Daniel, but seriously how often do you catch someone right as they are going in or out of their room? So I'm going to have to figure out how to find him. I like this game. I'm good at it. So far. I still have no idea who my assassin is. Maybe it's one of the dumb people who never even picked up the slip that has their target on it. Well for now, I'm still in!

I got her!

Last night, I "killed" my target. I had to be very sneaky about it because she knew that I was after her. So Daniel and I went into the dining hall to eat dinner. As we sat down, she sat down right across from us. We started laughing because we all knew that I was out to get her. But, the dining hall is a safe zone, so I couldn't get her then. So Daniel and I finished up eating quickly and left. There are two ways to leave the dining hall. One goes outside to the rest of campus, and the other way leads to the lobby and the rest of the dorm. I knew that she lived in the dorm on the first floor, and it was Saturday so she would probably be going back to her room after she ate. So I hid in a closet just outside the exit with the door open a crack. I sat there and waited until I saw her walk by, and then I jumped out and got her! I was so proud of myself. And the good news is that her target, now my new target, is Rashidat. She is another RA in Nelson and I have a class with her every single day. So it will be easy to get her. And she doesn't even know that I'm now her assassin, so she won't see it coming!

Yesterday Daniel and I did not go to see fall leaves. I woke up at 8:30 and went to work from 9-11am. When I came home I felt awful, so I went back to bed. And I ended up staying in bed until 5:00. I slept ALL day. I couldn't believe it, but I was actually that tired. I guess it makes sense that my body needs that much rest, but I felt like it was such a waste of a day. After I ate some dinner I felt better, but I stayed home the rest of the night just to make sure I'm fully recovered. My voice is a little hoarse now. Hopefully that's gone by choir rehearsal on Tuesday. Luckily this whole illness has only cost me one (important) class, and two hours of work. I got all my homework done this weekend so I think that I'm caught up with all my classes.

I'm really hungry right now. I hate this shift. I work from 5pm-7pm which is exactly the hours that the dining hall is open. I'll just have to eat at Nagel food court. It isn't that bad, it's just that I think I've been eating way too much pizza lately. Daniel took me out to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch today. It's nice to get off campus once in a while. I have to remember that there's a world out there with families and kids and not just college students.

On Friday night, a bunch of my (girl)friends and I decided that we want to take a pole dancing class. We think it looks like a lot of fun, and who couldn't use a little extra exercise? I was elected to email this local place to ask about their rates for private parties. We're thinking it would be a fun Nelson staff girls night out thing. And it's an excuse to buy some really cute high heels.

Feeling a bit better

Yesterday was awful. I went to the student health center describing my current symptoms of sinus pressure, headache, and sore throat. She prescribed a nasal steroid to clear it up. I went to two hours of class, and then decided that it really wasn't worth it and I need to rest. So I went home. I didn't eat lunch because my throat hurt and nothing sounded appetizing. Then Daniel brought me dinner and as soon as he walked in the door with a tray full of food, I ran to the bathroom and threw up. Sorry if that was too much information. So anyways, I have concluded that it was probably the flu. And only the 24 hour flu thank goodness, because I had a busy day today and I really couldn't cancel much of it. I already missed two hours of work yesterday so I didn't want to miss anymore today. I went to class this morning and I worked too. I cancelled a meeting with financial aid so I could rest in between my work shifts. I am holding down food and besides a stuffy nose and exhaustion, I'm feeling much better. The good news is that my parents have called me more in the last 24 hours than they have the whole time I have been in Colorado.

Tomorrow, Daniel and I are taking a day trip up to the mountains to see the pretty fall leaves. We are really excited to see the beautiful scenery. I guess that's what Arizona does to you. I'm excited because it's something nice that Daniel and I can do together. Just us two. Although we may invite some friends to come along if they are free.

Tonight we were invited to a screening of a couple TV shows. I don't know much about it, except that we will watch them and then rate them so these executives can make changes before they put them on the air. I'm curious to see what it will be like.

We're playing the game assassin in Nelson and I'm still alive! If you don't know how it works, everyone in the dorm gets a name of a person who lives in the dorm. That's your "target". You have to kill that person by throwing a balled up sock at them. Then when you kill that person, you take on their target until there is only one person left. The idea is for us to meet other people in our hall (even though I don't actually live in Nelson). I have no clue what my target looks like, all I know is her name, so I haven't been able to kill her yet. But I'm on her trail. I have found a few friends who know her, so they are keeping an eye out for me. And nobody has killed me yet, so I'm safe for now. Daniel got killed last week. Poor Daniel.

Adios!

I have the flu.

That is all.

Exciting day (so far)!

This morning I woke up before Daniel because I have class at 8am. I got in the shower and started getting ready. I noticed that Daniel was getting up. I asked him why because he didn't have class for another two hours. He said that he wanted to spend time with me before I go to class. I thought that was the sweetest thing. I HATE waking up early, so it meant a lot that he was willing to wake up early just to talk to me before I left. But I told him to go back to bed anyways lol.

I had a hard time staying awake in my first class this morning. It didn't help that the last hour was watching "The Marraige of Figaro" which is an opera by Mozart in italian. It wasn't stimulating enough to keep me awake.

I had a spanish test today. I felt really prepared for it, but there were parts that I didn't know 100%. That's okay, I'm sure I still did fine. Then I got a text from Daniel that said "I just reserved us a room on a 4 day carnival cruise that leaves dec 18 to cabo san lucas"!!! Woo hoo!!! I am so excited. The last cruise I went on was with Daniel when I was 14 years old. It was like a dream. I have such great memories from that vacation. And this will be even better! His parents have a room, his two brothers are sharing a room, and we get our own room. I hope we go horseback riding on the beach. That sounds so romantic. I am really looking forward to lounging in my bikini on the boat deck.

I feel so spoiled because Daniel and I have been saving up to go on a little weekend trip for our anniversary/my 20th birthday and we also decided to go to Disneyland over our very long 6 week winter break. So we are going up to Estes Park at the beginning of November, then Disneyland in early December, and then Mexico in the middle of December. Wow! That's a lot of traveling. But this is the best time of my life, so why not? It's going to be great.

Also today, I bought my bridesmaid dress. I am so so so happy that I found the one that I want. Originally, the people in the store told me that the dress I liked didn't come in the right color. But, on a whim, I was looking online to see what they have. And they have my dress in the right color! You just have to order it online. So it's being shipped here and I will try it on and make sure it fits right and everything. I love the dress. And lucky for me, Beth picked a cute color so there is a good chance I will wear the dress plenty of times besides the wedding.

Okay I have to go get lunch for Daniel. Adios!

Working...again

This weekend has been really fun so far. On Saturday I woke up at 8:30 because I had to work at nine. When I got back home at 11:00, Daniel was still fast asleep. So I got back into bed and went back to sleep until 1:00. I decided to watch a movie because I don't have any more homework to do (yay!). I pulled out Beauty and the Beast. I love that movie. It makes me really believe in magic and princesses and happily ever after. But I fell asleep like 45 minutes into the movie. I slept for another two hours or so, and then I woke up when Daniel got home for like another hour, and then I went back to sleep. I had to wake up at 6:30 because we were going out to dinner. So I basically slept all day yesterday. I must be really super sleep deprived or something. Daniel was actually really worried about me. But I think that I just needed to catch up on my sleep. So while I was sleeping, Daniel went to pick up a comedian from the airport. Theta Chi hired him to put on a show as one of their rush events. We took him out for some pizza down the street from campus and then he put on his little show for us. He was actually really funny. And luckily, one of my friends, Hope, came to see him so I wasn't the only girl. I was really glad she was there because some of the stuff was definitely aimed at the male audience. After the show, Hope and I came home and we had leftover cake and cookies from her floor event. She is an RA in the wing adjacent to Daniel's on the same floor. A little later, Daniel came up and we spent about two hours talking.

I think that we are so very alike. She was in choir in high school and her choir sounds very similar to mine. She also entered college with enough credits to be almost an entire year ahead. We had an entire conversation about what we like in a boyfriend, and she basically described Daniel. I think that she would want to date Daniel if I wasn't already with him. We talked about weddings and once again we have very similar ideas of what we want our wedding to be like. It was really funny to realize how much we agree on everything. I'm glad because I think I need some close girl friends here at school. And we sat next to each other in choir for the last two quarters, and once again we sit next to each other in choir every Tuesday and Thursday evening. We also have core together every Monday and Wednesday morning and we sit next to each other in that class too.

Last night we exchanged break up stories. She had this awful break up just a few months ago. I'm not going to give details because she probably doesn't want the whole story up on the internet. But it made me think about Daniel and my various break ups. We told her the really super awful one about Amy and winter break and everything. I told her about his 17th birthday party how me and Beth and Nicole went snooping through his stuff to discover more about this girl. haha it brought back lots of memories.

In a few hours when I got off work, I'm going to another Theat Chi rush event. We are going to this sports bar place and play pool and eat junk food. Mostly, I'm going for the food. I have probably had more pizza in the last week than a person should have in a whole month. So I am going to eat some wings and other really yummy stuff that's terrible for you. Later Daniel has his first floor event. We went to Safeway and bought a bunch of different kinds of ice cream and popsicles and toppings so we will have an ice cream party. And later this week is the Office season premiere party!! That's one of my favorite things about college.... you can always find someone to watch your favorite show with. But I can't believe I missed the season premiere of House. I didn't realize it was last week and not this week. But oh well, I will just catch up online.

Tomorrow I have a espanol examen por capitulo cinco and a test in biology lab on the anatomy of the eye and the ear. I hope they go well. They are my first big tests of the quarter!

Sleep and Cold Stone ice cream cake...these are some of my favorite things!

Wednesday ended up being a horrible day. My 8am class wasn't terrible, but I literally couldn't keep my eyes open in my 10:00 class. I didn't even go to my 11:00 class. I went back to sleep for over 3 hours. By the time I woke up, I was so disoriented and groggy and most of my day was completely wasted. The only productive thing I got done was laundry. Daniel didn't get to take a nap, so he was ready to go to sleep by 10:00, which made me also go to bed at 10:00. It's hard to get anything done in the dark whlie trying to be quiet. It was amazing how great I felt on Thursday after getting a full night's sleep. It was the first day this week that I felt like I had enough sleep. I woke up when my alarm went off without feeling groggy. I was in a good mood all day, I didn't fall asleep in any of my classes, and I had energy. I'm really going to try to get more sleep from now on. I don't remember anything from biology because I was falling asleep every single day in that class. It doesn't do any good to be there if I'm just sleeping through it anyways.

So besides being in a good mood and having lots of energy, yesterday was a very fun day too. I took a really easy quiz in biology and then did a quick review in spanish for our first test on Monday. In pschology we learned about some really interesting stuff, and I paid close attention in class (probably because my wireless internet wasn't working). I feel like I really helped some of the students in the NATS class and choir was fun. There's two songs that we are doing that I really don't like right now. But I think that's just because they are hard. So as I learn them better, I will probably like them better too. What made it even better is that Catherine (my choir director) let us out 20 minutes early! And even better than that, Daniel also got out early, so I didn't have to wait for him. And then, even better is that Daniel told me we are going downtown to this really nice pizza place for dinner because it's Jeff's last night working there. It was delicious. When we came home, we decided to watch a movie and just relax because it's Thursday night and we don't have any homework due tomorrow. I discovered that Eric has never seen the movie Saved so I convinced him that he has to see it. So he invited Emma and the four of us went to the theme room and watched it. I love that movie. It is hilarious. And I can totally relate to both sides. Then some more people wandered into the theme room and we just hung out until bedtime.

Oh, I forgot to mention the best part of my week. Well, maybe not the best, but certainly a really good part. On Wednesday night, I was craving this ice cream cake that I used to buy from Cold Stone in Boston all the time. So on a whim, I decided to go and get one. So each day since then, I cut myself a little piece and enjoy the deliciousness. It brings back lots of memories from Boston. My little tiny falling-apart dorm room. And Daniel coming to visit for my birthday.

Oh, that reminds me. I'm turning 20 in six weeks. I'm going to be 2o! I don't think I'm old enough to be 20. That's ironic isn't it? Well I don't feel 20 anyways. I'm excited for my birthday though. Last year, it just didn't feel like my birthday because I was so far away from home and Daniel and my family and especially Nicole. But this year I know it will be better. I might even have a party or something.

I'm working tonight from 5pm-9pm at Nagel and then 11pm-1am with Daniel at Nelson. So I will probably be blogging again. This blog was very disorganized and jumbled. But I guess that's the way my brain is working today. Good thing I don't have any tests.

It's very early in the morning

For some stupid reason, I signed up for a 5am-7am shift at the desk every Wednesday morning. At the time, I was thinking "I have to be at class at 8am, that's only an hour after the shift ends." I guess I didn't think about the fact that in order to be at the desk at 5am, I would have to wake up BEFORE 5am. As in like 4:45 at the latest. So now I'm sitting at the desk while everyone else is fast asleep in their warm little beds. Funny enough, Daniel also signed up for the 5am-7am shift at Nelson. So we both had to get up and go to the desk. And every half hour or so we talk on the phone. At least I have a TV. Daniel doesn't. I also got some homework done which is always good.

Last night I was not in a good mood. I think there are two reasons. One, I was busy ALL DAY like 9am-9pm and when I got home, I realized that I had a bunch of homework that I forgot about. So then I spent another 90 minutes on homework. And then I realized that I had to get up in about 6 hours, so I had better go to bed. Two, Daniel was also busy ALL DAY and is busy all day EVERY DAY and I wanted to have ten minutes of his undivided attention before I went to bed. But he was busy. So I was putting on my pajamas and getting ready for bed. Daniel realized that I was upset about something. So he stopped what he was doing and immediately came over to the bed and asked me what he could do. He even offered to read and summarize so I don't have to. His cell phone rang (as usual) and he didn't even answer it. He gave me his complete, undivided attention for more than ten minutes. And it made me so happy :-)

45 minutes until my shift is over. I haven't decided if I should use that hour to A) take a shower, B) do my laundry, or C) sleep. Right now, I'm leaning towards C. But then I will be groggy for my 8am class. Decisions, decisions. At least I'm done at noon today. I'm thinking this afternoon will definitely be naptime. That sounds lovely.

Headache

I haven't been feeling well. It's only the second week of class and I feel overwhelmed.
Not really with class, just with stuff to do. Last year I never really felt like I had too much going on. Actually, a lot of the time I was kinda bored. Not this year! I am so so busy. And Daniel is too. I think that before the quarter is over, we're gonna have to drop something. Sunday night I couldn't fall asleep. I just wasn't tired. But unfortunately I had to wake up at 7:00am on Monday morning. So I only got like 6 hours of sleep (not enough for me). Monday I felt terrible. I barely made it through class. In biology I couldn't keep my eyes open at all and my head hurt. By spanish at 11:00 I was just trying to push through. I felt guilty because I always try to put in 100% in my classes and everything, but I was just not into it. And spanish requires a relatively high amount of participation. When class got out I went straight to bed. I slept for an hour and a half. And lucky for me, Daniel called to wake me up. I probably would have slept right through my lab at 2 if it weren't for him. I didn't eat lunch, but I didn't care because I got a nap in and it made me feel a little better. But the lab made me very angry.

I worked very hard on my pre-lab, making sure that I did exactly what I was supposed to. I paid attention in class and read the background information like 5 times so that I could incorporate it into my pre-lab. At the beginning of class we lined up in front of the TA so she could check it over and give us a grade. She gave me a 3/5. In fact, she gave every person except one a 3/5. I was pissed. I did exactly what I was told by my professor in the lecture. But for some reason this incompetent lab TA felt that I didn't. How can she mark me off when I had no idea what I was supposed to do?! So once we all sat back down, in typical Rachel fashion, I raised my hand and complained. I told her that I thought I was speaking for all of us when I say that we did what we understood to be acceptable and it is unfair to mark off points. After the whole class piped in and agreed, she said that she would check with her supervisor and see about giving us the points back. I doubt that will happen. Grrrr.

This weekend I went shopping with a bunch of the girls in Nelson. We went to Fascinations. I think it was the craziest thing I have ever done. Just walking in was a little nerve-wracking (especially when there are like middle-aged men in there - creepy!) but then I got used to it. So the five of us giggled and had a good time making fun of all the stuff there. I particularly enjoyed the halloween costumes. I think we might go back and buy some before the halloween parties here on campus. Or maybe not.

Today was the first day of choir. I think I'm really going to enjoy it. Last year I sort of felt like I didn't fit in with the other girls. They all knew each other from first quarter, but I didn't know any of them. Well now I know all of them because a bunch of them are RAs in Nelson and it turns out a ton of them are science majors too. So this year I'm in the "choir clique". Today I made sure to introduce myself to a bunch of the newbies so they wouldn't feel left out like I did. We have 50 girls in choir. That's a lot. And we have a new director. Last year she was on maternity leave/sabbatical, so we had an interim director. I really liked him, and I think I will like her too. We are doing a song by Eric Whitacre (I know Nicole loves him). It's five Hebrew love songs that he wrote for his wife. I think it's kind of cute because Daniel's Jewish and all. We are also doing a song that I accompanied my high school choir on a few years ago. And some other stuff that I've never heard before. Unfortunately this year we all have to buy brand new choir dresses. I was mad last year that I had to buy one for like $70 and then pay an extra $10 to hem it. And now I have to buy another. Who knows what I will do with last year's. Halloween costume perhaps? At least I'll always have something to wear to a funeral. Bleh.

I should be doing homework. Or perhaps my job.

Fridays = boring!

Well today has been about as uneventful as a day can be. I had one hour of class this morning. I am kind of glad because it gets me out of bed at a reasonable hour. If I didn't have class, I probably would have slept in until 11 or 12. It was POURING rain outside. It had been raining since the night before so everything outside was very soggy. I did have the presence of mind to grab an umbrella so I didn't get soaking wet walking to and from class. But there were a few worms out. Yuck. Every time I see one, it gives me shivers. I don't know why. They just really creep me out. After class I took a nap because honestly I really didn't have anything better to do. At 1:00 Daniel came home so we ate lunch together and then he had to go back to class. Almost the entire campus has no class on Friday. I have just one hour. Daniel, however, has a full day of classes. He got home around 3:30 and we watched House together for a couple hours. I love that show. It's the scientist in me I think. At 5:00 Daniel had to meet downstairs to go on his retreat. I went down and waited with him until they left. And for about 20 minutes I was really sad, but then I got over it. Now I'm working my desk shift. I'm covering for Amanda tonight. She was signed up to work 6 hours straight, so now I am! I'm really glad though because it keeps me busy. There have been a lot of RAs and other DAs coming and checking in and saying hi so the time has gone by fast. And I've gotten a little bit of homework done. Not as much as I was planning on, but at least I got something done. Well this has been a sufficiently boring blog, so I think I'll go now. 2.5 hours left on my shift. And for some reason, the lobby really smells like pot. Very suspicious.

Thursdays = busy!

Yesterday I had four hours of class. Today, I had six. But it felt like a lot more. Probably because I wasn't done until four. I was really disappointed because psychology was really boring today. I'm beginning to think maybe that wasn't the best class for me to sign up for. Emotions are very subjective which means the class is a lot of opinions and discussion. I am the kind of student who would rather listen to the teacher lecture and then spit out the right answers on the final exam. But, it's probably a good thing that I take a class like this. It will strengthen my subjective reasoning skills.

Tonight we had a meeting to schedule desk shifts for the whole quarter. I was really worried about getting good shifts. And though I didn't get any of the shifts I wanted, I still really like how my schedule turned out. I'm working about 15 hours a week. Most of those hours are on the weekends, so I can get a ton of homework done. I also don't work at all on Saturday night so my date night/party night is still available. Also tonight I was officially/unofficially hired at Nelson desk too. The past few weeks I have been helping Daniel with his mail duties. I have just been behind the desk helping him so it goes faster; I don't get paid for that at all. Well one of the other RAs has had her boyfriend coming behind the desk and just hanging out. Daniel's boss doesn't want her boyfriend behind the desk because it doesn't look professional. But he can't allow me and not her boyfriend. So to get around this, he proposed that Daniel just hire me and then I can legitimately be back there and I'll get paid! So tonight I have another meeting for Nelson staff. I'm kind of getting a little bit stressed out thinking about all these hours I'm working and all this stuff I'm taking on. But then I remind myself that I am a college student and what do I have to do besides work? Sit in my room and stare at the wall? That's stupid.

Wow, who am I? I am so different than I was a year ago. So very different. But I like it. It's good.

Today I got a package from my grandparents/parents and Daniel got a package from his mom too. So we have A LOT of cookies lol. It makes me so happy to get packages from home. I honestly think that Daniel and I have the best families in the world. Sometimes we lay in bed at night and talk about how lucky we are. We have incredible families that love us; we are in college studying things we are very passionate about; we are in love; we are confident that we are going to be successful and happy for a very long time. Does it get much better than that? I don't think so :-)

New friends!

Today was a pretty good day.

Last night Daniel had to work the desk from 3am-7am. I was very lonely sleeping all by myself :-( And then when he came home to go back to bed, it was time for me to get up for my 8:00 class that I so desperately wanted to get into. And I'm really glad I did. The teacher is a no-nonsense kind of profesor. She gave us a pop quiz today (the second day of class). It had two questions apparently from the homework (that I didn't know about). First question: Who is the composer of the piece we are listening to? I read it, and completely panicked. It wasn't in the reading I did and I had never heard it before. The second question: True or false. If you paraphrase, you don't need to cite the source. Well, duh. They practically pound this into our heads freshman year. False. So I went back to the first question. I listened to the song very closely. The class is called "Beethoven to Berlioz" so that gave me a clue. I thought of course it has to be Beethoven. But, after listening to the song, I thought "This sounds a lot like Mozart". So I gave it a shot. She came around and collected the quizzes and.... I was right! I was so proud of myself. The class is made for people who know nothing about music so the day I missed was about pitch and rhythm and dynamics and tempo and easy stuff like that. Today we listened to Mozart's symphony No. 40 and learned the "sonata form" that he follows to a T. I never ever knew there was a specific format for classical music. It was so cool to follow the story that way. I think I'm really going to love this class.

Then I had biology, and it was somewhat boring, but quick. Then spanish which was also quick. And I was done! On Wednesdays I'm done at noon. It was a nice feeling. I came home and discovered Daniel left the room a complete mess so I cleaned it and then I met him downstairs for lunch. We had some errands to run and some work to do at the desk and then at 3:30 was my choir audition. I tried not to think about it too much because I knew I would get nervous. The fact is, pretty much anyone gets in. I just hate singing by myself in front of people. I am a choir kind of person. I harmonize well, but my voice just isn't very pretty by itself. I was glad because part of the audition was sight reading. That's definitely my thing. If nothing else, I can sight read well. Except today. I totally bombed it. For those who know what it means, I completely lost do and just ended up on some random note by the end. But I got through it. She told me that I was welcome to come on Tuesday to Women's choir.

Tonight two of Daniel's residents came over because they missed our first floor meeting on Monday night. We ended up talking for like an hour. One of them is a biology major and she took the classes I'm taking now last year, and I took the classes she's in now last year. So we compared notes. And they are both in a sorority and they kind of got me thinking about rushing. They seem like they are very much like me, so maybe I will fit in with their sorority. I told them I'm not that kind of girl, and they said that they aren't either. Dues are really expensive though, so I don't know about that. I'm still thinking about it. But anyways, we made two new friends. They are really nice so I hope we will see them and talk again.

Another difficult day

I ended up getting into that class. I emailed the professor in a last ditch effort to convince her to let me in. I was practically begging. I explained that I am almost a junior, and I can't take any other classes, etc. So she emailed me back and told me that usually they don't let sophomores take core classes because they are already filled up by juniors. But, her class is not full, so she is graciously allowing me in. As long as I have an add/drop slip in her mailbox by 10:30am tomorrow morning, she will sign it and I can come pick it up and turn it in to the registrar's office. I did that, so I will be in the class tomorrow morning bright and early at 8:00am. I don't even mind that it's at 8:00. Daniel has to be up that early anyways and he wakes me up when he gets up.

My day was actually pretty good on the school side of things. I had a meeting with Dr. Iona this morning to go over some stuff before I start TAing for the physics class. Then I had spanish. It's been so long since I have taken it, and my professor insists on only speaking spanish. And we can only speak spanish too. So the whole class I feel like I'm concentrating so hard on trying to understand what she is saying and trying to spit out what I'm trying to say in a foreign language. It's an exhausting hour. But I'm improving. The stuff I used to know is coming back slowly. It's frustrating because if I have enough time, I can figure out how to say anything. But the professor moves so fast asking questions and waiting like 5 seconds for us to reply. Daniel is helping me with my homework and stuff. He is much better at speaking it, and I am somewhat better at writing and reading it. Then I had psychology which I am really excited for. The class is about half seniors and half sophomores and juniors. It's also about half psychology majors and half other majors. There are actually a lot of biology and chemistry majors (like me!) and psychology minors. The professor is really young and laid back. She is also very excited to teach this class. It's about motivation and emotion. She was explaining today how that is a very new field of study and it's really taken off in the last few years. I don't think it will be that difficult of a class. Just like every other class, if I attend class and do the readings and assignments, it shouldn't be difficult to pull a B. We ended early thank goodness so I had time to grab some lunch before my next class. My last class of the day was NATS Physics that I am TAing for. Daniel is in it and it turns out about 15 other people I am friends with. I had no idea all those people were taking it. I can tell it's going to be a fun class already. The students were very willing to participate and Dr. Iona is a great professor. After that class is when things went downhill.

Daniel is so busy being an RA and Theta Chi and his insane class schedule and practicing tuba he is just so busy all the time. I text him a lot throughout the day since we don't see each other between classes and we can't have lunch together or anything. But lately I have just felt really neglected because he is busy all the time. It seems like I'm always competing for his attention. But we came to an understanding tonight so hopefully we will find some time to designate as like a date night or something where he's not allowed to answer his phone or practice or anything. Another thing that made me upset is that I got a call from my boss that I was supposed to work tonight. Oops. I guess I forgot. I didn't even have it written down or anything. He said that someone else covered it, no big deal, but I feel terrible. Especially because I'm friends with my boss, so I feel like I let him down. But I offered to cover someone else's shifts this weekend. Daniel is gone on an overnight retreat with all the other Nelson RAs on Friday night so I am going to work from 7pm-1am. That will be a long night. I'm a little bitter about this retreat thing, so working will keep my mind off it. I just don't understand what they have left to talk about. They just spent 2 entire weeks together training. And after one single week of class they have to go on an overnight trip together to get to know each other even better. I love all of the RAs in Nelson, I just don't understand why they need another 10 hours together after those 2 weeks preparing. But it's not my decision, so I just have to deal I suppose.

First day of class

I woke up this morning excited for the day. And now I sit here upset, angry and frustrated. It's been a very long day.

As I wrote in my blog last spring, I had a very hard time picking my classes for this quarter. It was difficult for me to find classes that fit in my schedule and actually helped me meet my major or minor requirements. I have one major and two minors. There are PLENTY of classes that should fit into those categories. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

I ended up registering for three classes and planned on showing up to a fourth and hoping the professor lets me register then. In my experience (and a lot of my friends), professors are generally very willing to allow you to register over the limit that is set on the registration system as long as you show up to the first class. Well, this professor wasn't. She explained that because this is a writing-intensive course, allowing extra students will make a lot more time grading papers for her. And lucky for me there were about 15 other students that were waitlisted (besides the 15 that were actually registered) for the same class. So I left the class and went straight to the academic advising office. Bad idea.

I sat there for an hour while this incompetent guy went over all my requirements and looked for something that would fit in my schedule. He obviously didn't know how to use his own programs. He had to keep opening up the windows task manager and closing it out and re-logging in. He did that 4-5 times in the hour I was there. He also deleted every single one of my classes and tried to re-register for all of them. Multiple times. Every time he deleted everything and then couldn't bring it back up, I had a little panic attack. So by the end of the hour, I was right back where I started. Three classes, but paying the same tuition as those students taking four.

After doing my own research, I found another class that looked interesting. It's about beethoven and romanticism and classical music. It's a core class, which means you have to be a junior to take it. According to my progress report, I will be a junior next quarter. I am about 15 credits short. I emailed the professor, asking her to allow me in. I was confident that she would. I even bought the textbook. But she emailed me telling me that I have to be a junior to take her course. End of story. I am so incredibly frustrated. I WANT to take four classes. I am PAYING to take four classes. Yet nobody on this campus will let me! There is no class that will fit in my schedule that I am eligible for. None.

Well bells turned out to be interesting. I think that somebody at the church decided to donate a bunch of money to buy a set of bells and all the equipment and everything, so the members figured they had better learn how to play. It was pretty obvious that none of them were schooled in handbells. They knew how to read music and everything, just not the stuff specific to handbells. They made up their own names for certain techniques. Those of you who know how to play will find this amusing. Instead of "mart" they call it a "smack." I had to keep myself from laughing out loud everytime they talked about "smacking." And I don't think they realized that I have played for ten years, but they kind of figured it out by the end of rehearsal. They have five octaves! That's two more octaves than we had at CITD. They put me at the very top so I had these little itty bitty bells and I was reading notes way up in the ledger lines. The people are very nice and welcoming. I think I'll probably stick with it at least for this quarter.

This church-hunting has really made me appreciate our church back home. We really have a lot of talented people who know what they are doing (for the most part). I have been spoiled growing up at the church. I never realized that not every church has members who are willing to direct choir or bells or the band or whatever. Daniel and I both kind of have the philosophy that we are going to try to help these groups improve and just have a good time. It doesn't matter if they are terrible or really incredible, it's all just having fun.

Today all the upper-classmen are moving in to the dorms. There are three major dorms for upper-classmen. Towers is on the North side and also has some freshmen living in it. On the south side is Nelson, where Daniel lives, and it is full of sophomore suites. Right next to Nelson is the brand new dorm, Nagel. The first three floors are sophomore suites and the top two floors are junior and senior apartments. There's also some little apartment buildings on campus that are really old and not very many people choose to live there. Daniel and I spent this morning renting out dollies for people to use at Nelson. We went over to Nagel and had lunch in the food court. The food is really good, but also very expensive. And just like all the other dining on campus, I'm sure it will get old.

Daniel and I also spent some time looking around Nagel. In all the hallways and study rooms there are paintings that were bought by the University to make the dorm more 'cultured' I guess. They have a phone number you can call on your cell phone and the artist tells about the painting. The artwork is really beautiful. I hope that the students realize the care that went into the buliding and take care of it.

The theme in Nagel this year is Harry Potter. It's really appropriate because our colors are crimson and gold (just like Gryffindor) and the parts of the dorm really look like the Gryffindor common room. Some of the common rooms and study rooms have the dome ceiling with big red cushy chairs just like in the Harry Potter movies. I'll try to post pictures eventually. And they even sell these awesome scarves in the bookstore that look EXACTLY like the scarves that all the students wear to quidditch matches in the movies. The RA staff at Nagel printed out a bunch of pictures of characters from Harry Potter and put them up on the walls around the desk. Each one has the name of a person on staff at Nagel. My name is on a picture of Cho. It's kind of funny because I'm also sort of staff at Nelson (Daniel's dorm). We took staff pictures this morning and I was in Nelson's because I help out so much behind the desk and stuff. I love how all the staff really get into the decorating. There are welcome signs and pictures everywhere in the dorms. It really feels like they are excited for us to move in and excited for us to be there. It feels like home. I love it here. I am so glad to be back at school!!

Feeding the Hungry

The community service project ended up being a lot more work than I thought! We had about 40 people working together. We had to take flattened boxes and tape them so they stand up. Then we put labels on them that described what was inside. Then we put it down an assembly line and put in things like cereal, peanut butter, evaporated milk, rice, tomatoes, peaches, etc. At the end we taped up the top of the box and moved it to storage. It doesn't sound like that much, but it was exhausting! In addition to the obvious job of filling the boxes, we also had people that were unwrapping packages of food and breaking down empty cardboard boxes and moving boxes to keep a constant supply for the assembly line. I started off sticking labels on boxes, then changed to the job of moving boxes to the front of the line. After a while I moved to breaking down boxes and opening up boxes and finally I ended up filling the boxes with cans of tomatoes. After about an hour, I noticed that the tips of my fingers were swollen with blood. They were really sore just from constantly picking up and moving boxes and ripping open plastic and cardboard. And when I moved to the tomatoes, I discovered that cans are very dirty. My hands were covered in dirt. And we had a very brisk pace going so there was no time to rest at all. Our group apparently is very competitive because we were constantly pushing each other to go faster and get more done. It was exhausting. Every time I put the cans of tomatoes in the box and my shoulders were sore and my hands were dirty and I was tired, I thought "This is one more family that won't go hungry". I couldn't believe that there were so many families that need food. By the end of the morning, we had made up 1078 boxes. That is a lot of boxes. It felt really good that we did so much in just a couple of hours. I just cannot imagine doing that for more than a couple of hours. There was another group there at the Food Bank from Americorps. We asked them what Americorps is and they explained that it's like the Peace Corps, only national instead of international. Their job is literally volunteering. They live together and travel around the city of Denver doing community service. I don't think I could handle that. It's exhausting. And kind of depressing. But it makes me really appreciate that there are people like them that are willing to do that. How many fewer boxes would be given out to hungry families if there weren't people like them volunteering?

I am working at the desk tonight. It's my first shift! I think I will start reading my biology textbook to get ready for class to start. And then after my shift I am going to church to see what their bell choir is like. They invited me to come to their first rehearsal of the year tonight. I'm nervous and excited at the same time. I'm nervous because I feel like if I go once then I'm sort of obligated. And I might not like it. But at the same time, I may meet some really great people and I will get to do something I love and really miss from back home in Phoenix. So we'll see how it goes. I'm also thinking about joining our choir. But that seems like a lot. Besides my four classes, I would have two jobs (working at Nagel desk and NATS Physics) and bells, and choir. Not to mention homework and having time to hang out with my friends. I don't know if that's going to be too much. I guess I will have to feel it out the first few weeks and see how it goes. I just need to leave my options open.

A day at the zoo

Today was the first day in 3 weeks that Daniel was all mine! No RA stuff, no Theta Chi or anything. So we decided to go to the zoo! It was a beautiful day. It was warm in the sun and cool in the shade with a cool breeze blowing. I had training this morning for my new job working at the desk of Nagel so we left right after that. Our friend Wes also came with us.

The Denver zoo is really cute. All the cages are very open. There aren't any tall fences or anything so you feel like you are really close to the animals. And in some of the cages you can actually get really close. The lions were sleeping right near these big glass windows. They stood up and yawned and I could not believe how big they are. I don't think I've ever been that close to a lion. We saw just about the whole zoo in 3 hours. And right when we were leaving, it started to sprinkle a little bit. It was just perfect. Daniel and I were exhausted, but Daniel has to do the mail before 6:00 on Wednesdays. So I guess I didn't get Daniel for the whole day. But that's okay. I have been helping him with the mail so it goes faster and we have time to spend together. I don't mind it that much. It's exactly the kind of job I like. Very systematic. We check to make sure the mailbox number matches the current resident. If it does then it goes in the mailbox. If it doesn't, we have to look up the resident's last name in the computer and forward the mail to their new address. It's very time consuming, but it should get easier as the year goes on. Right now about 80% of our mail is for residents that lived here last year. It's very annoying that people didn't remember to change their address because it makes a ton of work for us. While I was helping, Daniel's boss Jessica came in. She said that I'm practically an RA already. I'm really glad that she doesn't mind me helping out. I really like all of the other RAs and hanging out with them, and I don't mind helping them with their work at all.

Now that all the freshmen are on campus, it's much busier. There are groups of freshmen everywhere on campus doing different activities. And the dining hall is crazy! Normally we never ever have to wait in line to get our food and there's always open places to sit. Last night we had to wait in line for 30 minutes just to get into the dining hall and we got the last open table. I think mostly it was because all of their parents are here so they were eating in the dining hall too. And only one place was open on campus. Usually there are 3 or 4 places to eat. We ate with our friend Kendra. She is from Phoenix and Daniel knew her when they were both in high school. So now she's going through orientation and everything with all the other freshmen.

Today I got an email from Dr. Iona. He was my physics professor last year, and I am working for him in his NATS Physics class this year. NATS Physics is like Physics for non-science majors. Daniel and a bunch of my other friends are taking the class, so it should be a lot of fun. I have to read this big long research paper about how students learn physics the best and review the material for the first two weeks of class. I am really excited because for once Daniel will have to listen to me talk about science! Last year I always asked him about his music classes because that's something we both understand. We were both in band and choir in high school and we both play many musical instruments so it's something that we both enjoy talking about. But when it came to my science classes, Daniel was clueless. I would try to explain something really cool that I learned that day, but he just didn't get it. Well now we will have something science-related to talk about together. I know he will like the class because Dr. Iona is really good at making physics interesting and not difficult.

Tomorrow I am going with Daniel and all the other RAs to do a service project. We are putting together food packages for families in need. I love doing community service projects like that. It's always a lot of fun to do stuff like that with friends, and I always feel good helping other people. That's probably why I always liked mission trips in high school and stuff. You get to meet such interesting people when you volunteer too. Daniel checked with Jessica and she's going to let me come even though I'm not an RA. And tomorrow we are also going to Jessica's son's birthday. He's turning 2! The invitation said that we are having "cake and ice cream and everything Landon loves." He's so cute!

It's obvious that I am still really busy. I think that I will be very busy basically until this weekend. And then school will start and I will be busy again! But that's the way I like it. Who wants to go to college and sit around and do nothing? That's dumb. This is way better.

Moving in the freshmen

This morning I spent four hours helping freshmen move in. I was with the Theta Chi boys representing their fraternity. My official title is "Theta Chi Sweetheart". They're going to get me a shirt and everything. It was exhausting and I have lots of sore muscles, but it was fun. It was crazy and hectic! All of the freshmen move in between 9am-12pm today. There are only two elevators for each tower, so we ended up taking the stairs a lot. I was actually impressed with how organized everything was. Check-in went very smoothly because there were a lot of RAs helping. And there were people to direct traffic with the elevators and staircases, and people at the desk to answer questions. I felt like a hero because I helped a bunch of people with their mailboxes. Last year Daniel's key got stuck in his mailbox all the time until he finally learned a trick to get it out. I taught that to a bunch of the incoming freshmen.

I remember how exciting it was to move in to my dorm room. I was so anxious to get everything put exactly where I wanted it, meet my roommate, and explore campus. The great thing about helping freshmen move in is that you get to meet a lot of them. I helped so many, I'm not sure I'll remember their names, but at least I'll remember their faces. They didn't seem as nervous as I was, but I'm sure some of them were. There were people from all over the country. We met people from Chicago, Long Island, California, and my hometown of Scottsdale!

A few weeks ago we hosted a party in Scottsdale for incoming freshmen. We met all of the students and their parents and answered any questions they had about DU. I am so glad that we did that because I recognized three of them just today. I'm going to try to invite them to activities on campus in the next few weeks. Daniel also invited a lot of guys to come to Theta Chi rush events.

I start working this week. I have training on Wednesday to work at the desk at Nagel. I'm not really sure what will be involved with that job, but I think it will be pretty easy. Because of Daniel, I have made so many friends in the past week that are involved in Residence Life. Last night we had cookies and ice cream at Daniel's boss's apartment up on the fifth floor of our dorm. They are such nice people. So those are the people I will be working with at the desk in Nagel. And then next week I will start my job as the physics Learning assistant. I think I'll go take a nap now. It's been a long morning.