finals week

Well...it's winding down for me folks! I had my Human Anatomy final yesterday morning, finished up my memoir portfolio [totaling over 60 pages of writing!] and right now I will soon be off to the library to [cross-my fingers] finishing up my "take-home" exam for Linguistics [this could be wishful thinking however, as I have to write almost 3000 words for this one!]. I really want to get this one done today as my motivation is waning, people are leaving, and it's getting colder.

Yesterday I had a nice treat though as I was able to spend most of the day at Aunt Linda's. What a blessing that place of refuge has been to me these past 4 years. More than once have I just freaked out and needed a place to go to take a bubble bath! Her and Uncle Al have always been so accomidating to Brent when he comes as well. I have no idea how much food of theirs I have eaten over the years or how many loads of laundry I have done...but I'm sure I owe them forever now! :) I worked on my portfolio during the afternoon while I did laundry and then shared a pizza with Aunt Linda for supper before we headed to Sibley to see Grandma Schoon. We sat and talked for awhile and I read her some of my writings and then we even sang some Christmas carols. It was a nice evening.

But now I'm off to the library. Wish me luck!

i thought i would be better

Yep. I thought I would be better at this-- this being blogging, or rather being consistent with blogging. I still have high hopes though, when finals are over. But then it will be Christmas break and who wants to be at a computer if you don't have to be [at least when you're a college student!]

I only have one more class period. I still have a couple meetings with professors to turn in portfolio type things, a take home final, and one in class final...but after tomorrow no more lectures!! That is a little weird to me. I honestly feel like I just came to Northwestern, a little bundle of possibility! HA! [you know..."I am a promise, a possibility-- a great big bundle of [pause for effect] potentiality"... an old church kids song]

High school graduation [clean teeth!]-- check out my biceps in this picture--I sometimes miss those guys!

Anyway, I remember the mad rush for room keys on move in day and meeting my [then] blonde roommate [now brunette with a hint of red]. At the time I didn't think I was enjoying living with her, but it ends up she really showed me a lot of respect and in turn I have nothing but good memories. I remember my freshman year thinking that I had SO much work to do, and yet was somehow able to squeeze in a movie or two or at least a few episodes of friends [and i'll admit that I still squeeze in the Friends but rarely have time for a movie!]. I remember thinking "I have how many finals weeks ahead of me?"

[for you visual learners out there, here is a picture of me my freshman year--i'm back left:]

Last Sunday evening my roommates Renae and Amy and myself [who all lived on the same wing freshman year], decided to have a get together for everyone who was once on that wing with us as Freshman [surprisingly there are still 15 or so of us o n campus!] It was super fun and about 11 or 12 people came and ate cookies and listened to Christmas music and reminisced about our freshman year. One girl, Raeann, even wore a Santa costume for old times sake [she did this our freshman year once] It was fun to get together but a little sad realizing we'll all be parting ways shortly. Whether we've remained friends or grown apart over the past four years, it will be sad to see that group of women disperse. That year was so formative for all of us and for a short period of time we allowed each other to laugh and cry with us. It really is a unique thing. Some pictures from the get together:

one last glance for you from the slime fight every year [except one, i don't know what happened to my sophomore year?] red=freshman, blue=junior, yellow=senior

first snow

I woke up this morning to snow and ice and then rolled over and fell back asleep. I was thankful that I was actually able to sleep in as long as I wanted today. Although I have a lot of work to get done for next week, I decided to treat myself. It's pretty outside though, as there is a layer of ice which always provides dangerous beauty.

I need to get back to my project I'm working on but I thought I would share a poem I wrote the other day:

Last night I laid in bed
and words poured through me
a poem about waking up
to an overzealous alarm
and hitting the snooze
and rolling over to find you

of course it wounded better
and i repeated it, line after line
in my head so i would remember
when i woke up
the last line was wonderful
something about awakening to the
[this is where the beautiful words were]

i was so warm and tired
i didn't want to roll over and grab
a pen and paper

and this morning i woke up to my alarm
hit my snooze 4 times
and i rolled over and was awakened by
the absence of beautiful words


why do the muses torment me
at niht in bed
when they know i'm lazy and tired
when i don't want to be a writer
they whisper to me

right now at my desk
i'm drawing pictures
but i put a pad of paper
by my bed
to trick them tonight.