I'm Back!

Although I will not be partaking in the A to Z Challenge this year (I know, I'm disappointed too) I am going to try my hardest to keep up with posting! I'm not sure what got into me over the past year, but posting was just no longer important to me. Which is crazy, because I love blogging and I love reading about everything everybody has to say! So as my a-little-after-a-quarter-of-the-year resolution, I will try to post at least once a week and visit as many other blogs as possible! I look forward to reading everybody's A to Z posts!

Committing to a Book

I miss the good old days when you went to the bookstore to search for a new book to read. I remember begging my mom to drive me to Barnes and Noble where I search the young adult aisles furiously for interesting novels. There would always be so many! Then I'd tell my mom I was ready and she would tell me I could only get a couple out of my pile because, looking back, they were pretty expensive.

Now I find myself browsing Amazon but not finding nearly as many as I remember. Is it because my taste has changed? Or because I am just too afraid to commit to a book that I can't open to some random page and read to determine if it's interesting to me?

I've found that I have that problem more often than not these days. Every time I find a good read I hesitate on purchasing it because I'm afraid that I will absolutely hate the book and have wasted my money. I know it sounds silly and all the books I've looked at are great, but every time there's that thought lingering in the back of my mind.

Does anybody else have this problem?

It's Been A While

Who would have guessed senior year would be so busy? I just figured it would be like my high school senior year - the same amount of work with the added joy of applying to college. Boy was I wrong. I decided to go the extra mile and take on 20 credits (full time status starts at 12, most people take 15-17) along with working and doing research because I thought I could handle it. And I would be able to, if I didn't have the added task of applying to graduate school and taking the GREs. All together, that is a lot of work which I hadn't mentally prepared myself for.

I think the hardest thing about this semester is getting letters of recommendation from my professors. I tend to only talk to my professors when I don't understand something in class because, well, that's all I thought I needed to do. So now I've been at the same college for three whole years and I'm afraid nobody knows me well enough to write a letter of recommendation.

Another unexpected difficultly is writing my personal statement. I have absolutely no idea what I need to include in there. Do you? If so, do you have any tips on writing one? Sorry for being absent for so long, it's been a rough semester so far.

I Can't Do Anything Productive After 9pm

It's a supported hypothesis. Every night after 9pm I end up becoming thoroughly distracted by my roommates, movies, a good book, or some other activity which is much more thrilling than my homework. Sometimes I put my work in my lab while watching a movie to make myself feel better. At least I have good intentions, right?

Do you have that time of the night where you just know nothing productive is going to get done from then on?

Vacation 2012

Finally! It seemed like it took forever to get here, but I finally went to the beach this past weekend. As a northeast coaster, my choices are limited to New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Others are just way too far of a drive for me. I've only been to a select few but Ocean City Maryland is by far number one. It just so happens that's where I went this weekend as well!

That was what I woke up to Friday morning. The ocean is beautiful, the sand is clean, and I don't have to worry about stepping on tiny, razor-sharp shells (which kind of sucks if you like to find them on the shore).

Where I ate breakfast every morning (and gained 10lbs).

My nephew sitting on his dad's lap "stabbing" me with a knife.

My last morning in Maryland.

There was a terrible storm that was suppose to come in the area Saturday night, which made the entire day very windy. It wasn't nearly as bad as they were making it out to be though, only some rain. The storm did make the rip currents even worse, so we did not go swimming Saturday. The hurricane made it bad enough that on Friday I kept getting knocked over. Of course that just made it more fun!

I had such a great time! Where did you go on vacation this summer?

The Last First Day of School

I had originally titled this Schedule in hopes that I could get myself into one, but since classes have started I've realized that is almost impossible. This year seems as though it's going to be long, especially because it's my last year! It's almost scary that by the end of May I will no longer be a college student and real life will begin. The only thing I've ever known was school.

Photo found at http://www.fibers.com/shop/design/senior-2013.D36014

Speaking of school, I accidentally walked in the wrong classroom Tuesday morning. I have an 8am class (my first 8am since freshman year) so I wasn't thinking clearly and read the room wrong on my schedule. Since it's the first day for that class, I got there early and sat down. Immediately I thought something was wrong. Normally the class which I signed up for would only have a few people registered for it, but this room was a large lecture hall. Then I started paying attention to the people who were walking in and sitting around me. They were all pharmacy majors, definitely not the type to take an Intro to Journalism course. Finally I asked a girl sitting next to me who politely informed me the room I was in was scheduled for a pharmaceutics class. I quickly got up and walked out, rechecked my schedule, and went to the correct room. How embarrassing!

After attending the right class, we were informed about a blogging assignment. Yes, this means I have a new blog! It's titled Jen Macfarlan because I couldn't come up with anything snazzy on the spot, but it's for my Intro to Journalism course so the style is probably going to be completely different from this one. I'm looking forward to it! If you'd like to check it out, here it is.

I also can't wait to catch up on all my blog reading. Sorry for slacking! Does anybody else have two blogs? If so, what prompted you to have more than one?

It's Been a While

Summer seems to always be the same for me. I spend so much time watching TV since I don't get the chance to during school that I never end up going on the computer. Except to pay bills, which I'd rather not do but don't have a choice. This summer I decided to take pictures of my "adventures" since I rarely find time to blog about them.

The first exciting thing I did this summer was get a tattoo! I've always thought they were way to painful and that I never wanted one, but I changed my mind this past winter and decided it was time to get one. So I did.

The Gemini symbol

It didn't hurt nearly as bad as I was afraid it was going to! I think I may just get another one.

A little later my sister asked my parents to babysit my nephew, Connor. Of course I stayed home that night because that baby is so much fun to be around, which inevitably resulted in me changing a diaper. Connor decided he didn't want his diaper changed and tried to roll all over the place. His pants ended up not getting put back on, which resulted in this:

This is what happens when I babysit!

It's actually a really cute look for him. I think my sister got a good laugh out of it as well.

Have you ever heard of the Kutztown Folk Festival? It's like any other festival, except the theme is Pennsylvania Dutch. Let me tell you they have some of the best food I've ever eaten. For lunch I had a plate of ribbon chips. I haven't found those anywhere else! I also happened to walk by this

I forget what type of animal it was.

It was oddly mesmerizing. I couldn't look away. There was also a cuckoo clock tent where I bought my first cuckoo clock!

My favorite part of this summer was getting a new cat who we named Max. My mom found him on the side of the road near her work and decided she would give him a good home. About a million dollars later in vet fees he is a happy, loving kitten who just loves to cuddle.

He has an extra toe on his two front paws so they look huge

Max and Neko became best friends

The one outside hates his guts

Bad kitty!

It's only the end of July and I'm starting a new job and I'm all moved into my new apartment. Let's hope August goes as well as May, June, and July.