Christmas is coming!

Today is my last day of work before break. I have class tomorrow, but no finals until Thursday and Friday, so I'm going home to do some Christmas shopping and make some presents!

Last night was Joyce to the World, and it was so much fun! We all meet in Great Hall where there's an ugly sweater competition, cookie decorating, ornament making, card-making, and where President Joyce reads us a Christmas story. We all sit on the floor like little kids! It's a womderful escape from the last week of classes and finals coming up.

Today is also the last day of a few of my classes for the semester...Organizational and Business Communication, Speaker's Bureau, and my Mark Twain class. It's also a fairly long day. I had to dig my car out of the snow so that the parking lot can be plowed, I'm at work from 8-10, Org. Comm from 10-12, lunch break from 12-1, Speakers Bureau from 1-2, Mark Twain from 2-4, Communication workstudy meeting at 4, Admissions Christmas party at 5, packing to go home tomorrow, and finally a comedian at 9 (which I'm SO excited about!). So as you can see, it's a long day, but it's also going to be really fun!

I can't wait to go home just to be around our Christmas decorations. The college decorates for Christmas, but I'm so used to our decorations at home! When I leave I'm going to miss sitting by the Starbuck on my comfy couch...next to the fire place and Christmas tree where I can always be found drinking hot cocoa, and reading. That's definitely my favorite place on campus! I think I'll spend some time there tomorrow before I head home for the holidays!

One more week until finals...

This past weekend was really fun! The dance team finished up our season with two performances at the men's basketball games on Friday and Saturday. Saturday night Mark and I went to Oshkosh to "New Moon Cafe" to listen to an accordian player. She was actually really good...and she's from Racine (apparently we went to the same middle school). The communication department also had their annual Holiday Party. Jody always prepares such good food!

It's the last week of classes, and I'm starting to get antsy. It'll be so nice to go home and spend some time with friends, my mom, and Mark. After classes end this Friday I don't have any finals for a week, so I'm currently in the process of looking for things to occupy myself and my time. I can't wait for break...

Ripon College...land of opportunities!

My Speakers Bureau (speech practicum) professor, Jody, just sent me an email asking if I would be willing to fly to Texas (all expenses paid for) in March to speak on behalf of Speakers Bureau and Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE)! I'm so stoked about it! SAVE is one of the national non-profit organizations that the communication department here at Ripon College partners with. Not only does it benefit the organization, but it gives students like me a chance to practice real-world speaking skills for the good of others. Since it's my first semester in Speakers Bureau, I expected that I would have to wait for some of the bigger opportunities like this one. Instead, I've been offered some of the prime speaking egagments our group has had this semester. WOW! That's all I can say!

Thanksgiving.

I spent a lot of time with my family, friends, and boyfriend. Wednesday I got home and my brother, his fiance, my mom, and Mark were all waiting for me. We had a really good dinner and watched "Fred Claus." It may sound corny, but as far as Chrstmas movies go, it was pretty decent.

Thursday it was just me and my mom for Thanksgiving. We still had all of our traditions. like watching the parade, and we still cooked everything: turkey, green bean cassarole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, apple peacan cheescake, etc...we barely made a dent into it. We also saw the movie "The Changeling." It was really good, but very sad and not a very good movie to see on a holiday when you're supposed to be happy. My best friend Ashlee slept over that night.

Friday I woke up at 5 AM to go shopping...I know, I'm one of those. I didn't want to, but at Target they had a really good camera that was like 50% off in the morning only, so I just had to go! The deals really are great at 5 in the morning. Then Mark and I hung out for the night. We went to Milwaukee to a restaurant called the Maharaja. It's really good Indian food.

Saturday I helped my mom put up all the Christmas decorations. It took forever because we went out and bought some new stuff for the house, but it looks so beautiful now! I love decorating. That night, my friend Bri who goes to Boston College had a bunch of people over. She's a Film Studies major and needed some extras for something she's working on. It was a lot of fun. Then around 1 AM Ashlee and I made a stop out at Walmart because I needed some stud earrings so my piercings don't close up. And finally, I went to bed.

I awoke on Sunday morning to my boyfriend with coffee from Starbucks. I used to work there, so Starbucks is one of my favorite things in the entire world. We hung out until I left around 4 to pick my roomate up from the airport. The drive up here was not very fun and took 3 hours instead of just 2. But, we made it back safely in time to watch the Britney Spears Documentary...which I was not very impressed with.

Today there's quite a bit of snow on the ground. It makes me want to jump back into bed! BUT! No-can-do! I have lots of work that needs to be done this week, starting with two presenations tonight for my Speech Practicum class. I'm back to my Ripon friends and back to work for a few weeks as we all finish out the semester!

I've got to catch you up!

This past weekend I went to Minnesota with the dance team to compete! We had so much fun! We went out to eat at TGI Friday's, we sat in the hot tub, and did some bonding activities in our coach's room. Though we didn't place, we raised our score by more than 1/5 from last year and we all felt really satisfied with the performance.

School lately has been kind of crazy, and I'm more than ready for a break. Next week all of my major research papers and presentations for the semester are due, so I tried really hard to get a good grip on everything this week so I don't have to bring it home for Thanksgiving break. Even though I'm sure the week after break will be extremely stressful, it's worth it to me to enjoy some time with family and friends.

I have a french exam today and then I'm heading home to Racine, WI. When I get there my brother David, mom, and boyfriend will all be waiting for me. Tonight we're going out for dinner and then who knows! On Thanksgiving my family and I just chill out. We don't do anything big (we still have turkey, dont' worry) and that's what I love most about it. It's one of the most relaxing days of the year. I've agreed to go shopping on Black Friday with my mom. This will be the first year since I was 16 that I don't have to work it...so from someone who's been on the other side, I'm scared! Other than that, I've kept my schedule free so I can do whatever the heck I want for a couple of days!

A few new things:

The dance team is going to St. Thomas, MN this coming weekend for a competition! I'm really excited not just to compete, but to hang out with the girls for the weekend. Travelling with them is always so much fun. As preparation, we performed our "Viva la Vida" routine at a women's basketball game this weekend. Now we're working out some of the kinks this week in practice, and we should be set to go by Friday when we leave!

I'm also in the process of writing a big research paper for my Mark Twain class. Our assignment was to choose one piece of Twain's work and analyze it in comparison with his life, cirticism of the work, and other pieces he wrote. It may sound boring, but I've been learning about this guy all semester, so I'm looking forward to drawing some conclusions of my own.

I had to take my car in to Cliff's to be worked on. It's going to put me more than $600 in the hole to fix everything (ball joints, tie rods, etc.). It stinks, but I know that I'm not getting ripped off because Riponites, staff, and faculty have all given me good reviews.

It's starting to get colder, and that scares me. Now that I live in the Quads, it's a little bit further to walk to and from class (not that I really have any reason to complain). I think I better buy a warmer hat.

It's 70 degrees and November...I love Wisconsin!

The weather has been very strange here. The past couple of days it's been beautiful, and this weekend it's supposed to snow. WEIRD!

This weekend was a lot of fun! My boyfriend came up on Friday and we watched "The Omen" with a bunch of friends. I hate scary movies, but my roomate told me I had to watch since it was Halloween. Saturday I had a dance performance that went really well. Later that night, my boyfriend and I went to a really nice restaurant in Fond du Lac called Theo's. We had so much fun! It was one of those nights where you can't stop laughing and smiling. Sunday was really relaxing. Mark and I built a fort...haha, I haven't built a fort in probably 10 years! It was awesome!

Today is election day, and I can't wait until it's over. I really and truly care about who the next President of the United States is, but I just want to know already! More than that, I want my roomate to know...so that I don't have to hear about it anymore. She's been doing a lot of work for this election. I can only hope that her choice of candidate wins, not only because I believe in him, but because Sara will be very difficult to deal with for the next couple of months if he doesn't! I'm keeping my fingers crossed.