While I was waiting for things to get busy again, I didn’t realize they would get this busy! As for free time, it doesn’t exist. I’m working 43 hours this week! Barnes and Noble has been very generous with my hours, and I just increased my hours in the library. But don’t worry, this won’t be happening often. I just put in my two weeks at Barnes and Noble….

Why? Good question. I love Barnes and Noble; I love working there. However, I just landed an internship with the Palm Beach Poetry Festival that will be taking up a lot of my time. At first, I thought I could do two jobs and the internship (not to mention school), but when Laura, my liaison, emailed me my duties yesterday, I realized that it just won’t be possible. And I refuse to give up the internship. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity that will give me the chance to work with two published poets, Gerald Stern and Anne Marie Macari. My friend Christina, who graduated last year, has done the same thing, and I know, as much work as it is, that it is so worth it. So I sacrificed Barnes and Noble, but I definitely gained a lot more. Plus, maybe since I don’t work there anymore, I can actually hang out and look at books (if I can find some free time). You just can’t browse the way you want to when you work somewhere.

In other news….I’m attending the National Collegiate Honors Council in San Antonio, Texas, October 21-26. I have been accepted to a Poetry Masters Class, where I will get to work on my poetry with a few other students. I’m excited about that, too. The conference will also host many (many!) little workshops about how to improve honors programs. The President and Vice President of the Honors Colloquium, as well as Dr. Villa, will be attending with me. I keep hearing that San Antonio is beautiful, so I can’t wait to see it.

So I will try not to leave such huge gaps between blogs again, but you can see why it happened! Besides, I’ll have plenty to blog about!

Wow I had a crazy afternoon! I went to Lynn today to make sure that everything is in order so I can start the semester off without a hitch.

First, I went to the Parking Office to get a decal for my car. The person in charge was at lunch.

So I decided to go to SAS to find out why I had a hold on my account that was keeping me from checking in. I almost had a heart attack when the lady I was talking to told me that I still owed a ridiculous amount of money. It turns out that she had forgotten to add my awards to the equation. We got everything worked out and the hold was taken off of my account.

Next, I went to ask the work study dept. how much money I had available for work study so that I could get my hours. They sent me back to SAS because they were missing paperwork. SAS told me the amount and talked to the work study dept., so that was cleared up.

My next trip was to the library to let Vesko know how much I could work. He was at lunch.

So, I walked back across campus to the nurse’s office. I had blisters and needed two band aids. She generously gave me four.

Then I headed to the parking office, and the guy was back from lunch, so I was able to get a red sticker for my car, which means I can park almost anywhere on campus! I walked to my car, and stuck it on my windshield.

Then, I walked to the College of Arts and Sciences in Frieburger. I talked to Sally, the secretary, and she gave me some tape to put over my band aids, which refused to stay on my heels. I needed to talk to Dr. Morgan, my advisor, about adding another class, because I was one short. He had left for the day. Fortunately, Dr. Goldstein was there, and she set me up for my new class. I’m taking Creative Writing Poetry, British Literature I, Abnormal Psychology, Scientific Literacy, and Computer Applications.

I decided to walk back to my car (where I rememembered that I had another pair of shoes!) and drove around to the parking lot behind the library, because I still needed to talk to Vesko about scheduling my hours.  However, he had a different award amount than what SAS had told me.

So I had to walk back over to SAS and find out why the amounts were different (Vesko’s sheet was done by semester instead of year, so it was less).

Then I walked back to the library and decided with Vesko what hours I could work with my schedule. We decided every Monday and Wednesday from 8:30-9:30 and 2-6. That will still give me time to work my other job at Barnes and Noble….

…Which was my next stop. I had to let my supervisor there know my availability so she could start scheduling me as soon as possible.

That ended a very productive day. I went back to my friend’s apartment and just relaxed for the remainder of it. I wanted to go to the Marketing Department and see Ashlea, Jason, and Debbie, 3 of my fellow bloggers, but I thought it should wait for a day when I was not so worn out. I might go over there on Monday to catch up with them.

So Amber is officially graduated! The entire family is very proud of her.

As luck would have it, she sat on one side of the stadium while we were in the fourth row of the other side of the stadium. My mom spent the entire graduation standing on her side of the stadium just so she could get pictures of Amber walking.

Poor Christopher was so bored (well, to tell the truth, so was I, but I have more practice at acting interested. I wonder how differently I’ll look at a graduation when it’s my kids graduating…). He doodled throughout most of the ceremony to keep himself occupied.

He even tried to lay down and take a nap. And apparently he wasn’t the only one. Some of the graduates were napping in their seats, too, according to Amber. As exciting as actually, finally, graduating from high school is, the ceremony is always unbelievably boring. I remember at my graduation, I was fidgeting constantly. And I was in the front row, right behind the speakers. When the tape of graduation was played on local tv, everyone could see me moving my fingers constantly!

But anyway, I found one of the speakers to be very interesting. The mayor of Worcester spoke, and she compared the graduates to turtles: awkward and slow. No, I’m just kidding. She said that, like turtles, the graduates need to learn to stick their heads out to meet the challenges in life. They can’t hide in their shells. Another speaker accidentally called the ceremony a “commendment” rather than “commencement.” I caught the mistake, but thought it was appropriate nonetheless. The graduates deserve to be commended for making it out of high school. I was surprised to hear no one say “We did it!” or “You did it!” I was glad, though. I think it’s an overused and cliched phrase when it comes to graduations.

Congratulations to all of the graduates of 2008 and good luck in the future!

So tell me if this doesn’t say how burned out by finals I am–I went blind this morning.

No, I’m just kidding. But I did put two contacts in the same eye this morning, which equates to the same thing. I was confused because I couldn’t see clearly when I should have been able to, and I especially couldn’t figure out why one eye suddenly seemed worse than usual. It was an odd moment.

But my last final is tomorrow, and then I get to go home!

So in case you were wondering, the No Facebook thing lasted a whole day…only long enough for me to finish one paper. However, I have to say I lasted longer than Alyssa, who asked for her password after a mere hour. Despite Facebook, I have been finishing all of my homework on time, and I have not (fortunately) lost any sleep! That’s saying something considering all of the in-between things (for lack of a better word) that I’ve had to do.

Tributaries, the Honors Journal, is finished, and one of my duties as editor is to put it together–which means lots of stapling and lots of folding. If it’s possible to have a bruise on your palm, I will have one. I must have pushed that stapler down a good 300 times. Then, when I was done, I carried the box of journals from the library to Frieberger–my workout for the day! I could barely lift my arms after. But on the bright side, the journal is beautiful! The art in it is amazing, especially the cover art, which people from the graphic design department worked on.

Last night we had our last Honor’s Seminar of the semester. All we were doing was presentations. I don’t think anyone who wasn’t presenting went to class except for me, Brittany H., Alyssa, Renee, and one other girl who’s name I don’t know. So most of the class wasn’t there. I brought my laptop so I could do homework in between presentations, so that helped me a little bit. 

Tonight is the Leadership Banquet. Don’t ask what it is, because I don’t know. It will be my first time going, and all I know is that there is food (catered!) and awards are handed out. I might blog about it after (if I have time).

Hopefully, I won’t lose sleep tonight either. I still have two papers to write, one of which is due tomorrow, the other one sometime before the semester ends (but I prefer to turn it in tomorrow). Then I have two finals tomorrow, and the last one is Monday!

So I came up with an ingenious plan to keep me focused on my homework: forget that Facebook exists!

Well, in all honesty, that didn’t work so well. Facebook has been a serious distraction when I write papers. It’s dangerous how close I am to due dates when I haven’t even started assignments. I’m not using  my time effectively. So I need to do something to keep me from getting on constantly, and I came up with a plan:

Change my password. Obviously I couldn’t be the one to change it, because then I would know it, and that wouldn’t help the situation. So I got Alyssa to do it for me. She has the password to my account, I don’t: problem solved. I can no longer check Facebook unless she logs me on.

I could always ask for it back, and she could give it to me with enough begging, but I don’t want to be faced with not getting my homework done because of an internet website. Homework should definitely come first.

The end of the semester is here again…and busy as ever! It doesn’t seem like there is enough time in these last two weeks to do everything that needs to be done. The last week before finals, I have 3 papers and a presentation due-only one of which I’ve started. I expect to be functioning on very little sleep…

Plus, my boss scheduled me four days a week at Barnes and Noble. My entire Tuesdays and Thursdays are devoted to class and work-class at 11 (waking up earlier if I decide I need to do homework in the morning) and work until 11.

In the midst of it all, my bike got a flat tire-as if I needed more stress. I don’t really have time to go and get it fixed. Fortunately, I’ve been able to get rides so far, but I may be reduced to walking. On the bright side, I only have 5 work days left!

On Thursday morning, Brittany B. interviewed me for her TV Production class (not sure if that’s really the class, though). I was on camera. Wow. I’m not very comfortable with cameras (as my fellow blogger Ashlea can attest to since I actually helped her with a filming project just a few days earlier), so being in the spotlight, in front of the cameras, with her entire class watching was a little worse than awful for me. I got through it though! She interviewed me about my blogging, asking what I write about, if people recognize me, how my friends have reacted, and lots of other questions.

I managed to find time to register for fall classes-that was fun. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I’m done with class at 12:15! On Fridays, I’m done by 11. I am kind of in love with my schedule. I am also taking one of the new dialogue classes that is a part of the restructuring of the curriculum. If you haven’t heard about it, check out the Knight Writer, where you can learn a little more.

Also, we had our last poetry coffeehouse of the year. Quest, our literary arts journal, was published and offered to students. I took 6 copies. It seems like a lot, but one of my poems was published in it, and all of my family wants copies. It was Christina’s last night as President of the Poetry Club. Next year, I’m up. She gave me all of the information I needed to run the coffeehouses smoothly. I’m looking forward to it; I’ve never been in a leadership position before.

The same night, Brittany B., Alyssa, Kaileigh and I went to the play-The Boys Next Door. It was AMAZING, like Morgan said. Everyone did a great job. They put a lot of work into it; they even built an entire set (which I watched them take apart Saturday morning during brunch)! If anyone didn’t get to see it, you missed out. My favorite phrase since the play is, “Oh boy! Donuts!”

So, that’s an update on the past week or so. It’s been busy! Hopefully, the next two weeks will fly by so I can go home! I can’t wait…

So for the first time ever, I pulled an all-nighter (nearly). I stayed up until 4 in the morning trying to do homework (which is still not finished). This morning, I woke up at 9:30 (though I meant to wake up at 10-that’s when my alarm was set for). I just noticed that I have a parenthesis in every sentence…

Anyway: I realized how tired I must be while I was getting dressed this morning because I wasn’t dressing myself properly. First, I tried to pull on pants over my shorts. Then, I put on a sweater before my shirt. Finally, I put my shirt on, then went to put my sweater on over it (the way it’s supposed to be done) and I put the sweater on backwards. I only realized this because the hood was covering my face….

Unfortunately, I’ll probably have to pull an all-nighter tonight, too…..

It’s Monday morning and I’m back and busy as ever! My friend Matt kindly picked Aly and me up from the airport last night after excruciatingly boring day long flights. We were back on campus around 8:30 and I was ready to unpack! Of course, I wasn’t sure whether to do that or clean first. Our room was disgusting! I could have sworn that Kaileigh and I cleaned just few days before we left, but we might as well not have. *Somebody* forgot to take out the trash before she left and that same *somebody* left sour cream and Philadelphia cream cheese in the refrigerator, which some other *somebody* (not one of us 3) unplugged after we left. I opened the refrigerator and almost died-the smell was toxic! Fortunately, it hadn’t leaked out to the room, which pretty much smelled normal, until I opened the fridge door.

But, I decided that I would deal with the dirty and clean later in the week when I had more time. So I unpacked. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would, despite interruptions, one of which was meeting one of my new neighbors, who just transferred. The main problem was finding somewhere to put all of my Christmas presents…..and new books. I officially ran out of space for them last night, but somehow, I made room. Can’t wait to see what I’m going to do with the ones I will buy with my Barnes and Noble gift card.

So the reason I don’t have time to clean right away: work. Duh. My boss scheduled me to work not only Sunday, the day I returned, but also Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Fortunately, the Sunday thing would never have worked out because I didn’t even get back until late. There’s a possibility the Wednesday thing won’t work either because it conflicts with a class that I have. If she takes me off of the schedule for Wednesday, I can attend the poetry coffeehouse, which would make me oh so happy!

Plus, I’m running around like mad trying to find my school ID, praying that it’s been turned into Res Life lost and found so that I don’t have to fork over $100 to buy a new one. I would also like to eat sometime soon. I lost it the day we left for break and had blissfully forgotten about it until now.

So things haven’t changed much for me. My life is class, work, homework, and maybe some cleaning in there somewhere. Maybe eventually I will find time to visit and hang out with some friends! Wait a second, what friends? I’m too busy to have friends. What was I thinking?

Oh wow have these last two weeks been insane!! I have been so busy that I haven’t had time to breathe, much less blog (which is pretty high up on my list of things to do). First of all, I returned to work at Barnes and Noble only to find that my boss had scheduled me to work for as many days as possible….right at the time when I needed the most time off. In addition to so much work, I had a 2,500 word paper due, a 1,500 paper plus presentation due, a written take home final that hadn’t even been assigned yet, and finally, I had to create a hair salon with my group for entrepreneurship group, the hardest of all. I also had finals to study for finals. In the midst of all this, I had to find time to pack for my vacation! Well, my papers are  done, even if I did finish only 20 minutes before class, my finals are done, and I presented my hair salon business with my group with barely a hitch (after spending a good 5 hours on it in the library the day before). For the past week, I’ve been operating on an average of five hours of sleep every night; one night with only 4 hours of sleep because I decided to go out with some friends from work until 3:00 in the morning. Now, it’s over for a month!! I left Thursday afternoon for Illinois, where I’ll be for a couple of weeks before I meet Aly in California and go on the cruise that her family generously invited me on. Then, I’ll be spending the last week with Aly before flying with her to start the new semester! I’m going to read as much as possible, revel in the lack of work I have to do, and sleep until 12 noon at least once (I hope). Then, I’ll get back to school and start the cycle of stress all over!