Quelle est la date d’aujourd’hui?

Aujourd’hui, c’est le day I go back to French.

I need four semesters of a foreign language. FOUR! This is what I get for trying to get a liberal arts degree. I have to be all well rounded and all that jazz. Le sigh.

Latin was not going well. At all. After a year it has pretty much tanked my GPA. So I made the executive descion to stop. Latin is only going to keep getting harder and the Classics department is ridiculously hard at Private University. So I’m switching to a modern language. I’ll have class everyday now instead of just three days a week. Plus, a little fun bonus is my professor is from France so that should be fun.

I’m not going to go on and on about how I strongly dislike the foreign language requirement as part of my degree plan. I won’t give you the speech about how I know it’s not my strength, at all, and so that’s why I’m not a foreign language major, and so why do I have to spend TWO YEARS taking a foreign language in college?!

Instead, let’s focus on the hopeful and good things about this.

Good points about taking French:

• I took French for two years in high school. Even though it was a horrid time in my life because of that class, and I had a horrid teacher my second year, and I wanted to drop out because of it, at least I have some exposure.
• When I travel to France again I will know even more French than when I went last time.
• People actually speak French as opposed to the dead language of Latin and the only time I’d probably use it in my jouranlism career would be in interviewing the Pope?
• My friend Brandon is a Spanish major with a French minor and he’s going to help me. Yay for friend!

Am I bitter about not getting my credits from Latin? No. It wasn’t right for me and I had to find a new path. Failure is not always failure. Sometimes, it’s just the wrong road. I will focus on these good points from my list. I will not pout and moan and groan about Latin and the frustrations of this credit any more. Instead, I will hold myself to a standard of grace. Not perfection. Grace, synonymous with classy in my book. Audrey Hepburn spoke fluent French. Eleanor Roosevelt chose France to deliver her speech “The Struggle for Human Rights” and it was a big part of the success of that speech. And if those two ladies aren’t  just the absolute picture of grace and class, I don’t know what is. They and my bullet point list will be my anchors and inspirations and I will do great in French! Because, well, if nothing else, I don’t really have a choice but to do well at this point.

C’est la vie!

I want a furry best friend

“Thank you for being such a good friend, such a good listener. For making me smile; everyday, even on the worst of them. Thank you for teaching me about loyalty and friendship. Thank you for teaching me how to love.”

- Jack Porter to Sammy, his dog, on Revenge

I want a dog.

I don’t remember the last time I cried so hard. But I was sitting here on my laptop, watching Revenge, a tevelvision show courtesy of Hulu, and this beautiful dog dies. He wasn’t killed. He got old. A whole life time he spent running around the coast, being a trusty dog to his boy and girl, and then, his time just came.

I want a dog.

I don’t know where I’ll be living when I graduate college. I don’t know what kind of job I’ll have. I don’t even know if I’m switching up part of my double major.

But I do know I want a dog by my side.

Man’s best friend.

I am currently missing out on one of the greatest friendships ever known.

I want an English Bulldog. I want to name him Winston. We’d be best friends.

Rest in peace Sammy.

Trying to work within the confines of business casual, a limited wardrobe, and a lack of funds: Musings of a summer part-time receptionist college kid

Some days, I look really nice going to work. Other days, I look like I cloned myself from two days before. Why? Because I only have so many tops that can considered business casual!

I’m planning on buying some more nice tops to go with my two khaki pants and one black pair of nice pants. But I have to wait to get paid before I can buy more tops. But to get paid I have to keep going into work. Which means I have to keep wearing the same three acceptable tops in a rotating order.

Also though, I don’t have any more space for clothes here at home.  My dresser is full and so is my coat closet. Yes, coat closet. Being the oldest of four kids in a six person family living in a four bedroom house has its limitations. I love my room. Really I managed just fine before going to college. In my dorm I had a real closet though. I’ve seen the light! And my apartment for next school year is a walk-in! And I’ll have a full bed! Yay!

But I’m still at home with limited closet space for right now. And a limited set of clothes that are office appropriate. I mean really, as the receptionist, it’s my job to look super cute and welcoming so people want to continue using us. Duh.

I think this definitely qualifies as a first world problems kind of situation.

Meet My Friends

So at my new fancy schmancy job as a receptionist, I’m already making great friends! I would like to introduce you to them. Without them, my upcoming first paycheck would not be possible!

This is my favorite friend. I call him Trusty. He’s slow, but trust-worthy.

On Sunday, the other receptionist, who happens to be a dear friend of mine, decorated him with a little message for me. Then, going up the right side, I stuck a few sticky-note quotes on for good measure. Also, you may notice I’m on Quoteland.com, I just want to say this was an hour before closing and I had no calls or stuff to do for an hour. I’m not avoiding my work.

This here is Big Daddy. He’s my chair! I have dreamed of sitting in a chair like this for long hours ever since I was a kid. It’s just like one of those real nice ones you try out while you’re wandering through Office Max. When I was like ten and we’d go, I’d sit in one, close my eyes, and dream of being very fancy. I’ve arrived.

These lovely two, ladies and gents, are the Twins. We are totes BFFs now. For real though, I spend so much time with the Twins. I love them so much.  They taught me how to conference calls to another physical location, how to set up phones to ring forward straight to someones cell, how to hard code to voice mail, how to transfer calls, and so much more!

This is Sir Fax-a-lot. I get pretty faxes all day long. I log in who they’re for, then staple or paperclip, and distribute the papers to the boxes of the agents they’re for. Also, behind Sir Fax-a-lot, is one of my favorite art pieces in the office. It’s an original Pablo Picasso. There’s two in the office but this one if my favorite.

Last, but certainly not least, and number one in my heart is Shredder S. Shreddington the third. A long name, but he does prefer that I say the whole thing every time. He’s sensitive so most of the time he stays in the storage closet. But this past Saturday, he came out to play. Together we demolished files for three hours. A little weekend project left for me by the office manager.

A group picture from a busy Saturday morning alone at the office. Just us and no one to bother us. It was just me and my friends 9am to 5:30pm. One or two people briefly stopped by, and I was left to man the front desk, in case anyone needed anything.

Thanks for meeting my friends!

Books and Happy Times

Summer is already off to a great start!

I got a job as a receptionist at a real estate office. I work Monday through Friday 12:30-5:30 for nine dollars an hour!!!

To celebrate being done with freshman year and a great job I bought some books at the local used book store. 

They were having a mega summer sale! 

Hardbacks were a dollar. 

Paperbacks were 75cents and less. 

Perfect!

Yes, those are Nancy Drew books. I burned through the Nancy Drew books when I was in elementary school! Then, I’ve also been reading a blog called Ph.D.s and Pigtails and the blogger is working on research dealing with Nancy Drew. Both of her posts I’ve read about it make me want to go back and read them again. So I picked a few up for a quarter a piece!

I’ve been out of school less than a week and I’ve got books and a paycheck coming. I’m a happy camper.

 

Veni, vidi, vici: Freshman Year

 Freshman year of college: complete.

Veni, vidi, vici, Latin for: I came, I saw, I conquered.

I am still pursuing a double major in Journalism and Political Science at this point. However, Professional Writing sounds like such a fun degree as well! Maybe Poli Sci and Professional Writing will be doing a little switch up. To be determined.

For your convenience I have decided to make a few lists to sum up my year.

Things I learned:

• No one really has it all together. People switch majors left and right. Girls are constantly going after guys they know are not good for them. Professors are still trying to figure out how to engage students in a lecture room with three hundred people. We’re all still learning.
• I don’t like sharing a room with someone. I liked my roommate, but I don’t want to share another room with anyone until I’m married.
• Starbucks is not gross or evil and I enjoy it very much.
• Living on the sixth floor of a dorm with restricted visitation hours for males (1pm-6pm on Saturday and Sunday only) will not kill you despite what every female believed at the beginning of the year.
• People like to be “addicted” to things. Television shows, social networking sites, coffee- and they also like to tell everyone how horrible their life is without these things they don’t really need.
• Girls are weird and are messing things up for me when I want to eat in the cafeteria. When I go to get noodles I get one small scoop. The boy behind me gets three healthy scoops! All the workers think I’m watching my figure. And you, yeah, you girl in the corner eating only the white part of a boiled egg as your entire lunch, you are not helping.

Things that annoyed me:

• Able bodied college kids pushing the handicap button in front of doors they are perfectly capable of pulling open!
• Kids complaining about how much time they spend studying in the library but not subtracting the amount of time talking with friends, stalking on Facebook, or pinning on Pinterest.
• Poor kids hating on the rich kids. Come on, we’re at a private university! You really thought everyone was going to be from the middle to lower class? Get that chip off your shoulder and go make friends.
• Latin class.

Things I loved:

Fazoli’s dinners with my best friend was perfect. 

• Walking across the bridge that went over the interstate highway to go eat at the fast food restaurant across from the university.
• Going to lectures. John Patrick Shanly. Condoleezza Rice. Sandra Day O’Connor. Chet Edwards.
• Starting this blog as part of my journalism class.
• Having my Welcome Week group be the same people that were in my first semester English class.
• Going to a school with such a long history and many traditions.
• Meeting so many new people.

Things I’m looking forward to:

• My public affairs reporting class next semester.
• My apartment with my own bedroom next semester!
• Finding out what books I’m going to be reading in my American Literature class next semester.
• Drinking Starbucks again. I decided I’m going to let that be a college thing and no Starbucks this summer.
• Internships eventually!

I love college. It’s definitely everything I’ve been waiting for and more. My only problem is that I can’t take every class I want because I’d never graduate.

A  favorite on campus: The Immortal Ten statue.

 

Wondrous Things I Almost Missed

Because I hate studying around large masses of people, especially ones that wait til the last minute and then take the good spots, I have been forced to find new places to study on campus. I’m so glad I have because I have found some really great places that I’ll use again in my remaining three years of college.

Another great part about having to forge through foreign buildings for study nooks, is that I’ve found things I never would’ve found otherwise! Here’s a picture of my favorite night from this week of Dead Days to prep for finals.

I went to the philosophy area of one of the buildings tonight. First of all, there was a great unoccupied table. There was an outlet for me to plug in my laptop and so many chairs to choose from. Nice. It gets better. Across from the table there’s a counter by the wall that had a little sign that said: FREE STUFF!! There were books! Free books! What a dream come true! So I picked three little selections for myself. I mean, really, I couldn’t leave them. School is only in session for a week more. They don’t want leftovers. I’m such a saint to take them off their hands. Applause is welcome.

Then, around the corner were all the offices. Some of the doors were decorated with comic strips. I took a study break and read them all. I put my favorite one in the above collage. Another door was decorated with Honors Book Club suggestions. Yes! Score, I jotted down the titles and authors so I can look them up later. I’ll probably add all the samples of each of the books to my Nook.

Since the Philosophy department has been so gracious to me tonight, I have decided to repay them by picking up two brochures and considering taking a class in the department. Sounds interesting. Good people.

I could’ve missed this entire glorious find if I’d decided to stick to the common spots at the library. Forget that. This is a new favorite.

Think of all the other undiscovered treasures waiting to be discovered! I think I’ll keep this in mind to help me get through the stresses of finals. I just want to be done with Latin for a few months at this point…

Go explore something!

The Season of Freedom

Summer: Books and Endless Nights

My freshman year of college is complete. I only have so many free summers left before I’m a working woman year round. Which means every summer counts!This summer I’m working and doing a month of summer school to take psychology and British Literature.

What I’m most looking forward to is endless hours of reading.

Every summer I read Gone with the Wind and since freshman year of high school I’ve read Queen of Camelot every summer too. Great books!

Lately my book shelf is starting to feel like my iPod though- lots of great things but nothing new. So any recommendations y’all have  would be great!

Anything!

Seriously. I love to read. Biographies. Mysteries. Fiction. Anything.

And….go! Leave me a comment please.

Where do the squirrels go when they sleep?

The empty lobby in the English building.

Where do the squirrels go when they sleep?
…and how do the trees feel about everyone perching on their limbs? Birds perch. People perch. Something always perching…
Where do the stars go when their shift is over and the Sun watches over the sky?
Where do the professors go when it’s seven pm and the building that smells of ink and books closes?
Where do the boys go when light fades and the frisbee is put away and the lightning bugs take over the grassy knoll?
Where do the squirrels go when they sleep?
…and do the birds know since they’re always around? Around campus. Around the parking lot. Always around…
Where do the people who ask if they can use pens on scantrons work when they graduate and there’s no one left to tolerate their questions?
Where do the I-love-you’s hide when the magic fades and the yelling steps in?
Where do my questions go when I ask them and only the silence of an empty room is around to hear them?
But most importantly where do the squirrels go when they sleep?
…and if your answer is into the trees then why don’t I see them? I look high. I look low. I’m always looking…

Latin: Good for Nice Quotes and That’s it.

A snapshot from my textbook.

There are very few things I enjoy about my Elementary Latin class. In fact, saying that there’s a few is pretty generous of me. It’s more like two things.

1) I like the quotes from the sentences we translate.

2) I like the respect on people’s face when I tell them I’m taking Latin. That’s right, you all know it even sounds hard.

Anyways, on a positive note, here are some quotes I really like:

- At res graves neque vi neque spe geruntur sed consilio.

 Translation: Mind you that serious things are carried on not by hope but by wisdom. 

- Dum vita est, spes est.

 Translation: As long as life exists, there exists hope. 

- Numquam periculum sine periculo vincitur.

 Translation: Never is danger conquered without danger. 

- Nullus accusator caret culpa; omnes peccavimus.

 Translation: No accuser is without fault; we all have sinned. 

- Bis vincit qui se vincit in victoria.

 Translation: He conquers twice he who conquers himself in victory. 

-Qui coepit, dimidium facti habet. Incipe!

 Translation: He who has begun, has half of the thing done. Begin!