Stuff

We just had Haunted Hospers in my dorm.  They turn the whole building into a haunted house and it was truly impressive.  Our floor was like an abandoned cityscape, so the walls were covered in crumpled newspaper, the doors and ceiling in black trash bags, litter was all over, it was really dark.  You couldn't even tell it was a dorm floor.  It was literally creepy to walk to the bathroom at night.

I begged God to give me the ambition to stay off the internets this week and get school done, which all climaxed at the anatomy quiz today.  He helped me do that, and now I get to enjoy a visit from Mom on Saturday.  I'm going to feed her fro yo, maybe we'll go on a hike at Oak Grove, watch Netflix in her hotel room, we'll go to church together, eat at some yummy place, I'll show her the cute main street park.  Yep, it'll be great.

Here are some pix of the "haunting".

Peace out, corn dogs :)

(I feel like that could be a gangsta Iowa saying or something.  P.S.  It's 11:30 p.m.)

Some Tuesday Morning Views at NWMSU

Today before I left for breakfast, I grabbed my camera and took it with me around campus. Here's some views from around campus. (It's homecoming week here at Northwest Missouri State, so most of these are homecoming-related.)

This is Centennial Garden. It's outside South Complex. That thing
in in the middle is a fountain. It's actually a pretty area. The shade is
making it look a bit funky.

This is the view from a 2nd story stairwell in South. This is part of the Lab
School and the playground. I walk by it every day and there are always lots
of cute kids outside!

This was my lunch today. Aside from the curly fries, it was good.
(Cheese grits, Mac 'n Cheese, and honeydew melon. Also milk. I love milk.)

The rest of these are pictures of some of the banners made by the sororities and fraternities. This is not even half of all of them. There were enough to hang them on all sides of the student union. I took pictures of especially impressive ones, creative ones, and Disney ones. (The theme this year is "Rollin' Out the '90s" which I find odd, since I was born in the '90s, but whatever.)

Power Rangers

Lion King

Candy Land

Spongebob

Dragonball Z (?)

Powerpuff Girls

Toy Story

Star Wars

These last two pictures demonstrate some of the can art that the sororities and fraternities do. They buy groceries, build things with them, and after the competition, all of the food is donated to the food pantry. Again, this is just a couple. These snaked all the way though the second floor of the Union.

Barbie's Dream House, Mr. Potato Head (my personal favorite!),
and some sort of helmet.

A Furby! This one made me happy!

My Bad Boyfriend

Okay. So I've been enjoying myself here at college far more than I thought was possible. I like most of my classes, and I'm fine tolerating the classes I don't much care for.

Like my Language and Formal Reasoning course. It counts as a quantitative reasoning credit, which is great, because that means I don't need to take any statistics. It's a beautiful thing. LFR is my favorite class this semester. It's challenging. Because even though it is a "language" class, it involves a lot of . . . math.

A lot of math. I mean, it's not real math, but it might as well be. The "language" is so jacked up on crack, it thinks it's math. It's ridiculous. There are proofs in this class. PROOFS. AS IN, THE KIND OF THING THAT MAKES YOU WANT TO MAKE THE WALL BLOODY FROM POUNDING YOUR HEAD AGAINST IT IN FRUSTRATION.

Because really, what other kind of proof is there? I'm an English major for a reason. I don't do proofs. I hate proofs. Proofs should go step on a Lego.

But it's so fascinating. The way my professor talks, I can see how multiplication was eventually invented, along with division, in a sense. It's way cool to see how everything with subsets and members and absolute complements all work together smoothly.

But that's only if you know what you're doing.

Which has lead me to believe that my Language and Formal Reasoning class is like a bad boyfriend.

I love it. Possibly more than I should, and all it does to me is make me question myself. It's a challenge I want to overcome, but it makes me prove ITS problems.

I think that this is probably not the relationship I need right now, so I will have to break it off sometime. Maybe before Christmas.

A Day in the Life. . .

Wednesday was  interesting. Here's what happened. This is pretty typical as far as my days go around here.
7:00 a.m.-Alarm goes off. I accidentally turn it off.
7:48- I wake up and freak out. And then promptly get a nose bleed. Greeaaattt... I promptly proceed to throw on whatever is lying around, pop a piece of gum in my mouth and run out the door, all while dealing with this nosebleed. Halfway to my 8 'o clock class, I realize that I don't have the rubric I need, so I hurry like a mad woman back to my dorm, up the three flights of stairs, down the hall, around the corner, and back to my room. I grab the folder and rush back.
8:01- I get to my class, still kind dealing with a nosebleed, but it's minimal. And I'm late, but not too late. In class, I finished an assignment and worked on extra credit.
8:50- I head to the Union to acquire some food. I nosh on a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch while reviewing for my Mass Media mid-term.
9:10- I get back to my dorm room and breathe a sigh of relief. I don't have a class until 10. I put on real people clothes (and deodorant) and generally get ready for the day. I also make a list of things that must get accomplished today and a shopping list. So far: toothbrush, cookie mix, and
9:40- I slap some Nutella on a piece of bread, fill up my water bottle (I'm guessing the nosebleed stems from lack of water), and head to class.
10:00- Arrive at my Mass Media class. Take mid-term. Feel confident. Leave.
10:20- Leave Mass Media class and head to Administration building.
10:25- Talk to the HR people and set up direct deposit for my new job.
10:35- Head to Union to grab some mini muffins and start to type this post. The mini muffins were yummy!
11:00-Accelerated Comp. class. We talked about types of fallacies.
11:45- Head to the Union once again, this time for lunch. I decide on mac 'n cheese, carrots, a corn bread muffin, and milk. I sit down, eat, and then type some more on this. Also, I look at Facebook. And Pinterest.
12:10- Head back to my room to rotate my books out and get the stuff I need for my 1 'o clock class. I also check my mail. Alas, my daily dose of disappointment!
12:15-Hang out in my room looking up classical piano music. It's what I do.
12:45-Head to Stats. Woo hoo.
1:00-Stats. Anti-climatic
1:50-Head back to my room to fill out forms for my job and watch Netflix. And also eat a snack.
3:20-Head to the Union to grab a sandwich and fruit for a very early lunch. I eat it on the way to band.
3:40- Grab my bass drum and continue snarfing down my sandwich. The drum line boys offer me a ride up to the practice lot. I finish my sandwich.
4:10-Band practice. More of the same old same old. Marching, counting, getting a killer calf workout. . .
5:20-Load back up the drums in Wil's truck. Drive back to Fine Arts. Nels offers to put my drum away so I

That's Nels. I'm the one with the littlest bass drum. He's the one
with with biggest. And yes, our hats are on backwards. That's
band for ya.

can run to work.
5:25-I head to the Alumni House. I had computer training for 30 minutes before my job started. What is this job, you ask? Well, I am a "Cat Caller", which basically means that I am part of a phone-a-thon. I call alumni, update their information, and ask them for donations. Those of you who know me well know that my two least favorite things to do are calling people and asking people for money. However, after last night, I am a bit more comfortable with it. It was kinda like trial by fire, actually. Last night I made 156 phone call attempts and I'd say that 89% of those calls ended with answering machine, wrong number, busy signal, and more. But just like Russian Roulette, you never know if the next call will have a person on the other end. I got more comfortable as my 3 hour shift progressed, and I even managed to raise some money for the University! It's definitely a God thing that I got through that shift without a complete freak-out!
9:00-I head back to the Union and get my second supper; this time, Reese's Puffs and fruit. Back to my room I go!
9:10- Give Mom/Kell a call to unwind from my evening. Talk for a while. It was much needed.
9:50- Began working on finishing my Freshman Seminar paper about the differences between high school and college.
11:30-Actually finish the paper. Miranda and I were busy in between trying to untag ourselves from a post on Facebook and generally talking.about all sorts of things.
12:00-Crawl into bed. Watch some Melissa & Joey and nod off. (P.S. Melissa & Joey is hilarious!!!)

Eliza Learns a Lesson (and other news)

Don't do this.
Don't overbook yourself.

Being in the RUSH Dance Show at Northwestern is pretty cool and at times pretty fun, and it's great to do something out of my comfort zone... but it was probably not a good idea.
I'm getting a C+ in anatomy and my grades are just a little sketchy considering I need a B- average to even GET INTO the nursing program.

I won't be taking any more shifts for people at the Hub either, I don't think.  I worked five shifts this week and have been sleepy and stressed out.  At one point I broke down and bawled in front of my RUSH dance leaders.  Then I got angry for over committing myself.

As a nursing student, you aren't just keeping up good grades to impress your parents and keep your scholarships.  It's do good or go home, really.  Sometimes people don't really know what that's like.  It's okay to tell them "nope, not overbooking myself again.  Not gonna do it."

This reminds me of in VeggieTales when Bob asks Larry to play the tuba during the theme song, and Larry's like "nope, not gonna do it."  Anywayyy...

                                                (See how stressed out Larry looks?  He shouldn't be playing the tuba.)



In other news:
My super fantastically awesome girls dorm?  I don't get to live here next year.
They're turning it into a boys dorm cuz one of those is being torn down.

Out tight-knit, adorable community of only 50 girls are going to turn into dinosaurs.  We are the last of the Hospers girls.  Who knows where we'll all live next year.  Hopefully we can stick together.  I'm just thankful to have gotten to spend my freshman year here, cuz it is pretty darn utopian, let me tell you.

Good night :)

Kara's Birthday = 19+1 questions!

It's my birthday and I have decided that that means that I can make all the rules!
Power! So much power!

Just kidding. I just thought I'd do something a little different as a birthday post. Here's what's happenin':
I sent Eliza and Billie 19+1 questions and we all answered them separately. I'm combining them here, and hopefully they'll enlighten and entertain you, or at least occupy your time for a while! So stick around to learn some interesting facts about the three of us! (As a birthday gift to me (or just for fun) you could play along and answer the questions in the comment section!)
1. What's your favorite beverage?
E: Egg Nog comes to mind. A big cold glass on Christmas morning, or in the middle of a hot summer (if you can get your hands on it!). Root beer is pretty darn delicious too!
K: Milk! 2% or Whole, preferably. I also like Orange Pineapple Mango juice. Seriously! Dole makes it and we basically only have it at Christmas or birthdays! Delish! And smoothie! Also smooties!
B: A good mango smoothie beats all else!

2. What are your thoughts on muffins?
E: Lemon poppy seed or blueberry
K: I like blueberry or cinnamon strusel. Also, the food court here sometimes has muffins with apple pieces in them, and those are good, too. Just don't give me a dry muffin. Dry muffins are sad muffins.
B: Love 'em! They're like healthy cupcakes! And I love me my cupcakes, healthy or otherwise!

3. What are your 2 greatest fears?
E: Heights and not getting to be a midwife
K: Throwing up and throwing up in front of people.
B: Hm. Deep question. Being a disappointment. Nothing else comes remotely close.

4. What are your favorite pizza toppings?
E: Sausage
K: Cheese! (or ham and pineapple, if enough other people will go in on it with me!)
B: The pizza better be from Casey's. Because I like pepperoni, but I love taco! But there are oodles of good ones out there. But Casey's is the best!

5. What is the title of the 5th chapter of your least favorite textbook?
E: I think it's about polyatomics or something.... Oh Chemistry...
K: "Input and Output" (It's my Computer textbook. Ick!)
B: "How We Work" from my Acting Out Culture textbook.

6. What was the last film you watched, and had you seen it before?
E: 10,000 B.C. and no I hadn't. Mammoths and saber tooth cats, oh my!
K: Miss Congeniality and I hadn't ever seen it before! It was hilarious!
B: Captain America and yes I had.

7. Imagine that your first child is a girl. What would you name her?
E: Camla. I just found this name and it rocks!
K: Catherine is one idea I have. I also like Cora, but that sounds a lot like my name, so I might go crazy.
B: Isla

8. Imagine that your first child is a boy. What would you name him?
E: Brody, maybe?
K: I've always liked James.
B: Jack

9. Grab the nearest book. Turn to page 27. What is the 9th sentence?
E: "It's a plate of the human female torso, pointing at the right atrium of the heart." from my anatomy textbook. #mylife
K: "God is saying the same thing to you." Fearless by Max Lucado
B: "You feel that more with me than you do with your grandmother, I expect?" from Murder with Mirrors by Agatha Christe.

10.What is your favorite plant or flower?
E: Roses. The cool colored ones like white or yellow roses are especially neat-o.
K: My parents got me a big vase of coral colored roses from Chickenshed for graduation and I absolutely loved them!
B:Weeping Willows, but lilies are my favorite flower.

11. What shirt are you wearing and from where did you get it?
E: Oh gosh, I'm glad you asked! Tonight I ran out of laundry and asked our epically cool RA for a t-shirt on loan to go to dance practice in. It's actually from the little boy's department and has a picture of Perry the Platypus saying "I work out!". How great is that?! (Pretty great, actually!)
K: I've got my 7th grade cross country shirt on. It's the only Ballard sport shirt I own... All the rest are from Student Council and Speech/Theater/Musicals.
B: A 2013 Large Group Speech All-State T-shirt. I got it at All-State. BECAUSE I'M A BLOODY ALL-STATER!

12. How did you spend last night?
E: It (Tuesday night) was fantastic! I got to chat with my bro and joined ask.fm.com to answer random questions with a lot of sarcasm. There was also some YouTubing involved.
K: Last night (Tuesday night) I had Bible study and I also finished a short paper or two. There was much listening to country music and also procrastinating by sending Eliza YouTube videos.
B: (Tuesday night) I talked for three hours with my roommate and another set of roommates about racism. Eventually we ended up talking about how the animal kingdom has homosexuality, bisexuals, transgenders, and prostitutes.

13.What has been the most unexpectedly cool thing about college so far?
E: I just can't get over how at home I feel here. I just can't believe it! WHAT A BLESSING!!
K: Pretty much everyone holds open the door for everyone else. Pretty cool. Also, how much my roommate and I get along. It's totally a God thing. We just jive so well!
B: The phenomenal people on my floor! I feel like I've know them more than a month!

14. What is your favorite quote?
E: Probably anything Audrey Hepburn or C.S. Lewis said.
K: "People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the world your best and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway, for you see, in the end it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway." -attributed to Mother Teresea, but actually by Kent M. Keith.
B: Crap. There are so MANY. But I like "A professional is an amateur that didn't quit."

15. What is your favorite Bible verse?
E: Isaiah 41:10- "Do not fear for I am with you. Do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness." Boom!
K: Jeremiah 29:11-"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."
B: Isaiah 41:13- "For I am the Lord your God who takes a hold of your right hand and says to you, 'Do not fear, I will help you.'"

16. Recommend a book in 3 sentences or less.
E: Moccasin Trail won the Newberry medal for being engrossing, historical, heart-touching, [and having a] fantastic plot. OH MY GOSH Jim Keath! I know these characters like my own family, have read it 5 plus times.... and now I'm way over 3 sentences. Gushing adjourned. 
K: The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers is probably the most gripping, heart-wrenching book I have read. It takes you through a whirlwind of emotions and sucks you in from the beginning. I think every teen girl and woman should read it because it will really make you think.
B: I've read many books in my time. Many fantastic, life changing books. And I have a favorite. (Pieces of Georgia by Jen Bryant)

17. What is one food you can make really well?
E: Bacon and Egg Melts. They're Pioneer Woman!
K: One thing I was thinking about was my Sweet Potato Casserole. It's yummy and I'm making it for Thanksgiving again this year. Y'all are gonna miss out!
B: Chocolate Chip cookies. I am the supreme cookie master at my house, and everyone knows it!

18. How long have you known the other two of us and how did you meet each of us?
E: Billie I have known since chorus in 8th grade (or maybe earlier at Cornerstone?) and Kara I've known since 6th grade at the Slater pool.
K: I've known Billie since 5th grade. I remember being fascinated that a girl's name was Billie. I vaguely remember meet Eliza at the pool, but I know the first time we really talked was at Youth Group at the beginning of 7th grade because I remember giving her a hard time about living in a funeral home.
B: I met Kara in 5th grade when we were put in a reading group with two other people in Ms. Tuttle's class. I met Eliza at an audition for a Christmas production when we were in 8th grade.

19. Describe an excellent evening if, say, you went out on a date or hung out with friends. (i.e. Sitting at home eating copious amounts of chocolate is not acceptable...this time.)
E: Go to an amusement park with a British guy and stay their until the lights come on and he buys me a funnel cake. Partaaayyy!!
K: Walking at with my significant other and then going back home and watching a funny movie while sitting on a comfy couch and eating chocolate and raspberries and drinking milk.
B: You want a night out on the town type answer? Cuz most of my fantasies involve popcorn, lemonade, a comfy chair, huge stacks of manga and books, and unlimited streaming of my favorite TV shows, cartoons, anime, and movies. BUT if I had a night were I was out with two or three SUPER close friends and we went out to eat, had dessert, stopped at a book shop on the way home, had a movie night and then delved into a deep conversation about various important topics and analyses at the end of the night... THAT would be perfect!

19+1. What are you most looking forward to in the rest of the year?
E: Leading two different missions trip teams to I-don't-know-where-yet. Pre-teens and 8-10 year olds. I can't even believe I'm signed up to do this!
K: Honestly, I'm looking forward to going home at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break, [hopefully] Prom, and finally summer break. I just want to be home with my family and my stuff, and I want to make money over the summer.
B: All the cool things my floor mates are introducing me to! So many new experiences with so many new people!

So there you have it! Hope you enjoyed this little game! Thanks for sticking around (and thanks to Eliza and Billie for answering all my questions)! If you'd like, answer one/some/all in the comments! 

Ah, Blissful Saturday

Saturdays are THE BEST.
Saturdays are when I take a forced break from homework and socialize all the livelong day and even eat sugar for a change.

It's fall (almost) on campus, and it was crunchy-leaved with mild temps.
At the caf, I made my once-a-week sugary splurge: "Heart Attack in a Mug".  I do recommend this for the taste, but only every once in a while as a treat.  Here's the recipe:  1/4 of a mug full of waffle batter nuked in the microwave for a minute.  Then pile it with soft serve ice cream and crushed candy bars and Oreos.  Then die and go to heaven for the next ten minutes.  Ah, the warm doughiness and cold ice creaminess.

Then, I went to my first NWC sporting event yet, a varsity football game.  I enjoyed it.  We won, there was a good turnout, the guys behind me making comments about their male cheerleader friend were quite entertaining.  I got sunburned!  (which was my personal "take that, summer's not quite over" victory)  P.S. The guys down front from West Hall were all wearing their bedsheets as togas.  It's a thing they do.

Our dorm had a carnival with all the floors competing for points against each other.  A tug of war, giant trike race, a jelly bean spitting contest.  I had to leave early for a productive dance practice.  Then I snarfed a chicken burrito at the Hub (the funner dining place) and dashed over to the theater for a one man play about a guy's conversion from skeptical teenager to God believer.

If you stuck around for this part of my narrative, I have a treat for you.  SWING DANCING every Saturday night in our dorm lobby!  How cool is that?  I also got to waltz with a boy.  The music is Disney to "Take the A-Train" type stuff.  I wore my retro jumper from the Omaha thrift store and painted my nails all Rue 21.  It was grand.

Then, I watched a cool flick called "10,000 BC" with Katie down the hall.  I crawled under the covers (roommate-less, she's gone for the weekend, sniff) at about midnight or so, wishing tomorrow could be Saturday all over again.

The guys standing next to the toga-wearers looked just like this.

You know you want to try this.

                                                    Prehistoric near death experiences, anyone?

The trikes kinda look like this.  A second person can stand on the back.

See, us teenagers would be cool if we'd lived back then.

The end.