So much work, so little time

Today I went to the last class for the semester that I hadn't had yet because it only meets on Wednesday. I think it will be my favorite class. The professors is one of my favorites and I really enjoyed the class I took from him this past spring. Again there is lots of work to be done, but you can work in groups (although the project is lengthened depending on group size), so that helps a little.

I am so excited about the U101 class I teach. The kids are very enthused for the most part and we have some really exciting things planned. As I mentioned, a little more than half the class lives on the same floor in a dorm and is part of the Journalism Living-Learning Community. They have all gotten to know each other so well and it is exciting to see how much fun they are having. We have one kid who is a real jokester and in his journal wrote about an emotional text he got from dog and Bruce Willis coming in to kill a tyrannosaurus rex that was eating the dorm. Tomorrow they have to share time lines of their life, so we will see how creative they are! Check out what some of the Living-Learning students are up to at their blog.

On a random note, my research teacher keep using food references for example in class and then went on to talk about chocolate chip cookie recipes. This made me giggle remembering a cookbook our class made in 5th grade and Kenny submitted the recipe for chocolate chip cookies. It went as follows:

open the package
put the dough on the tray
bake

I don't think that's what they were looking for, but they included it anyway.

First Day of Classes

So summer is officially over and classes have begun. It is crazy, I know. My first class today was University 101 at 8 a.m. One of our students works for the Great American Cookie place, so she brought in this ginormous cookie with a Gamecock on it. Not exactly a nutriuous breakfast, but very delicious. The class did have 23 students, but one was a liberal arts major and since the class if for journalism majors, I think they changed. So with 22, we did the normal introducions and went over the syllabus. About 15 of the kids are living in the Journalism Living Learning Community where they all live on the same floor in Columbia Hall. It should be an interesting living situation. I then thought I had a class at 9:30, but it got moved to Monday Wednesday which just isn't cool.

I had some free time and then I headed to the SC Arts Commission for my first day interning. I am so excited about working there. Everyone is so nice and interested in so many different areas of the arts. I never realized how many people worked there and all the programs they have. There are so many opportunities to learn from working there. Then it was off to my last class today from 6 - 9 p.m. By that time in the evening, I really don't have much of an attention span and then the teacher isn't all that interesting, so it was a little tourtores and with the rainy weather, the ceiling leaked so that gave an added element to the class. The best thing that came of the class was that he told us we wouldn't have class the night of our home Thursday football game which is so exciting.

The Fab Four

All my life I have been the type of person to get the job done. In high school I wan't really popular and never actually won (except once) my positions in an organization, but the teachers would always make something up so that I would still help. It is just my personality that I can't let something not get done and get it done right.

So this is my first semester not working at the alumni association with the student membership program since my freshmen year. It has become my second family and the program has had such a big part in my life for three years. There are four student that work for the program and the last group of us were the Fab Four (pictured). We had many, many memorable moments both at work and out our many adventures. Though it hasn't always been easy, I wouldn't trade that time.

The first event of the year is Cool Off Carolina, and unlike the events throughout the rest of the year, it is open to all Carolina students and for the past two years has been at the Strom pool. In the past it was in the center of campus, but it didn't offer the refreshing pool and atmosphere that the Strom has. I volunteered to help because, well I wouldn't miss it, and when I got there about 20 minutes before it was supposed to start, it wasn't near ready. It is weird because three of the four new officers have never worked this event before along with the graduate assistant. The last events office put the event from 11-2 instead of 1-3, so when I left there wasn't a huge crowd. The set up was a little off and none of the ad board really knew what they were doing. It is hard to let it go because it was so much a part of my life for so long, but at the same time it isn't my problem any more either. Ahhh!

On a more exciting note, I am beginning an internship at the SC Arts Commission tomorrow and it is the first day for my University 101 class.

Getting Organized

After living in the dorms for my freshman year in college, we bought a condo which is practically on campus (attached to a University parking garage). We looked at so many places around Columbia, and couldn't find the right spot. Then we looked at Senate Plaza and found a great two bedroom condo that was all white walls carpet and a really outdated kitchen. During the summer before I moved in, we came up and worked to renovate it. Tour out the closed in kitchen and opened it up to the living room adding a bar sitting area. With a coat of paint and new floors, it was ready to live in. But you know how there are those projects that you mean to do, never get around too? Well, I have great closets, but they only had one rack across the top, but the rest of the closet was wasted space. So with an idea in mind I headed to Lowes to look for closeting materials and got the shelving and mounting supplies and headed back to my condo to start installing. I did get a little offended when the guy at Lowes asked me if I owned a drill. Of course I own a drill!!!

Back at the condo it ended up being simpler than I thought to install and start getting everything organized and set into place. So the closets are done finally after three years on the to do list.

Learning to Let Go

Staring from a young age, I have keep everything and always had an order to the things I had. For instance, I was the kid who copied the boxes and set up all the Barbie sets just like they looked on the box. Maybe it is partly because I am an only child, but I can fondly remember organizing and re-organizing stuff. As I got older I continued to save things. Some of it goes into scrapbooks, like tickets, playbills, posters, but then I have every paper from every class I every took. Lack of cabinet space and the realization that I will never use the stuff again has prompted me to finally throw out this stuff and how much space I have gotten! It is such a good feeling to be ride of all the junk and start the year out without the clutter. Now if I could only get the closet of clothes organized!

Life in the Fast Lane

So one of my friends starting blogging and her blog is way to funny. You can check out Rachel's blog by clicking here. She also yelled at me for not updating mine. I normally write when I travel, but have never really figured out what to write about in the mean time. Today has wrapped up my summer intership at The Brandon Agency and what a fun and busy summer it has been. All of the interns came together to enter the Intern Hero contest by Little Debbie and we won muffins. Yum! (which came in today, just in time). Braden, a sort of intern, worked with our ideas to take pictures and create our amazing entry.

I am still trying to figure out where the summer went. And procrastinating on reading a book that I need read by Monday that I am 10 pages into. Tomorrow is my last full day in Myrtle Beach before heading back to Columbia. This means getting to see so many friends I haven't seen all summer, but also missing all those who have moved away. It's hard to do the same things, like game night, when the orginators aren't there. Those stories that start, remember when we..., aren't known by the newbies and they just never find the stories as funny.

Since returning from Europe, I did get to visit DC for a weekend and althought it was a really quick trip, it was lots of fun. It just so happened that Spring Awakening was there and Rachel's(from the blog above) Claire was playing Thea. We got to see the show and it was amazing as always. If you haven't seen Spring Awakening, do yourself a favor and find a tour date near you and buy tickets now! While we were in DC the cast also did a cabaret show to benefit Make-A-Wish. It was fun to see the cast sing songs that they had choosen. It was a great show and you can see clips of the performances posted on YouTube. Also, when you have time, make sure to check out Extended Run, which is a series written and directed by Perry from the show staring the cast. So back to the trip, DC was great and Ashley and I got to visit with Michael, a friend from USC and also some other friends Dustin and Cami, who showed us some great local restaurants and bars.

Now it is the countdown to football season. Everything in the fall revolves around the weekends when the Gamecocks play. Tailgating in Columbia is an experience you have to see for yourself, cheering on your team with 70,000 fans in Williams-Brice. Sadly our first two games are away, but soon enough we will be at the Cockaboose tailgating!!!!!!!