It was not today.

Today was just one of those days.

It started fine.  I got up on time, got ready for class, packed my bag, and left for the caf.  And then things just started to go wrong.

Today would be the day they decide to pack up the hot breakfast food early.  5 minutes too early.  Meaning that I had to just have cereal for breakfast.  I went for the granola that I knew had protein in it, but it was stuck in the cereal dispenser, so I had to settle for rice crispies.  Fine, but not very substantial.

Poetry was .... poetry.  That's the only way to describe it.  While leaving class I dug in my bag to find my wallet/cell phone case, turned on my phone, and happened to notice that my key wasn't on my keychain.  I remembered then that I had taken it off the keychain that morning when I went to brush my teeth.  No big deal, I thought, Evelyn (my roommate) would be out of class in 2 hours, and then I could use her key to get into the room.  In the meantime, I would read the next chapter of Poetry to get ahead, go to mass, and meet her after lunch.  Wonderful.  Things were looking up.

Fast-forward 2 hours- I read poetry and attended mass, headed to the caf to eat Evelyn for lunch.  I called her on the way to let her know where I was.  She didn't answer her phone, but usually it's on vibrate, so I left a message.  20 minutes later, I still hadn't seen her.  30 minutes.  40 minutes.  A friend comes by and tells me Ev misplaced her phone.  Aha.  No wonder.  She'll be in the caf in a little while and we can go back to the room to look for the phone.

We finish lunch.  Still no Ev.  We leave the caf.  She's sitting outside on a bench.

Turns out she left her key in the room.  With her ID.  So she not only couldn't come into the caf, but also couldn't go back to the room.  And she was waiting for me, so she could use my key.


Perfect.  Just perfect.

So we head back to the dorm, get in using our friend's key, and head up to our floor to find an RA.  And things just went downhill from there.

The office was closed.  One RA was sleeping.  Another RA was at lunch.  We had seen another leaving the building as we walked in.  2 others weren't in their rooms.  Finally, we decided to interrupt one who was studying.  She was very willing to open the door for us (thankfully!).

The rest of the afternoon was fairly normal.  Until I headed to French class.  As I walked away from the dorm, I realized I had forgotten my Foundations of Catholicism notebook.  Which meant that in the half-hour between French and Foundations, I had to walk to get dinner, buy dinner, eat dinner, walk to my dorm, get the notebook, and walk back to class.  I spent the "down moments" of French class strategizing how to best go about doing this.

French.  Run and buy dinner.  I was trotting up the (cement) stairs near the student center and completely fell flat on my face, whilst holding a cup of iced tea.  Thankfully, there was a lid, but in the process of saving the tea I killed my leg.  I made it into the dorm, ran up 4 flights of stairs, quickly consumed a grilled chicken wrap, threw my notebook in my bag, ran down 4 flights of stairs, got outside and saw that it was pouring, ran back up 4 flights of stairs to get an umbrella, back down those same 4 flights of stairs, and back across campus.  Whewph.  Talk about exercise!

I think that's where the excitement for the day ends.  At least, I hope so.  Because it's 10:35.  Not that the time really has anything to do with it.  Oh well.

Well, this is exciting, but it's happening tomorrow:  my brother's coming!!  Yippee!!  He has offered to take me sneaker shopping..... little does he know what he's getting himself into.  hehe  (Don't worry, I'll go quick like a bunny.)

I'm off to do homework- I don't want to have to do any tomorrow night!

xoxo,

Yes, we are (Catholic) college students ... and other musings on college life

It is awesome to have Jesus living in your dorm.

I mean, to live in Jesus' dorm.

I love seeing friars when I'm walking to class.

There is safety in numbers, especially when you get a discount on your dance ticket.

The book club is going to be discussing "How to Find Your Soulmate Without Losing Your Soul".

We may not have a football team, but we have frisbees.  Lots of them.

There must be a sale on turkey; we've had it 3 times in a week.

Lights out is always characterized by the sound of girls chanting the Salve Regina.

Movie night is ended with the comment, "Wasn't that a great scene of redemption at the end?"

The appropriateness of movies at said movie night is determined by the USCCB standards.

One of the best feelings in the world is opening your mailbox and seeing one or more pieces of mail.

A better feeling is seeing a card with a yellow sticker in your mailbox.  Indicating the reception of a *gasp* package!!

It's great to open one of those boxes and find scented dryer sheets.

My "mysterious nephew" simply made my day last week.  

There is nothing worse than looking at your watch and finding that your class begins in 4 minutes, and you're still in your dorm room.  

After looking at your watch and bolting across campus, it's sooooo relieving to walk into that classroom precisely at 2:15.

And it's frustrating when the professor doesn't begin teaching until 2:18.  I could have saved my breath!!

The campus internet is so protected that I can't unsubscribe from the wig emails I've been getting.  (Yes, you read that right.  The last one read "Be who you want to be in a wig".  I'm who I want to be without a wig, thank you very much.)

The chapel has at least 10 girls in it every night at midnight.

12:05 mass is always full.

10:30 mass on Sundays is wall-to-wall packed.  Every. Single. Week.

There are too many households to visit.  I want to go to them all.  

Praise and Worship night is almost as well-attended as weekday mass.  Almost.

Did I mention that I love it here?

Yeah, I figured that you got that message.

xoxo,

Of Spinach and Weather

As strange as that title may seem, the topics are related.  In a way.  I guess.  Maybe.  

So there must have been a sale on spinach at the store where Sodexo shops.  Because today for lunch, there were two things that had spinach in them- the chicken parmesan and the soup.  Oh, and since when does "chicken parmesan" consist of pasta, cut-up chicken, and spinach in a cream sauce?  That's not the chicken parmesan I grew up with!  It was good, but still.... and then the spinach soup was good, too, but different.

Ok, people, this is September.  It should not be 50 degrees during the day!  For goodness sakes.  And on top of that, rain?  No way, Hosay!  (I just realized that I've never spelled that phrase out.  Is Hosay like Hosea in the Bible?  I've no idea....)  Anyway, it was freezing and I was VERY grateful for my sweater and coat.  The soup was appreciated muchly.

With cold weather comes the want (read: need) for apples.  Yummy, fresh apples, hand-picked in an orchard in the middle of nowhere.  So I'd really like to go apple picking when I'm home on break.  Will apples still be in season then?  I hope so.... Mom?  Dad?  Can we go apple picking?  

Today was the day of packages.  I got 4 of them!!  1 was a movie (Phantom!) I ordered from Borders because I had a gift card and they're going out of business, so I got it for almost nothing.  (Oh, happy day!) The second was an air freshener for our dorm room..... The third was a Vera Bradley purse and wallet that I ordered because they were on sale (I saved more than I spent!!).  And the fourth was a pretty barrette from my mom. :)  (Thanks, mom!!)

AND tonight and for the next 2 nights I have a friend staying with me.  It's going to be a good weekend.  

xoxo,

Goings-on

That was another busy (and fun!) weekend.  My morning on Saturday began at 5:10; I woke up, got ready, and went to 6 AM mass in the chapel.  I was amazed at how many people were there that early on a Saturday morning!  Afterwards, we went outside and got ready to head to the abortion clinic in Pittsburgh to pray.  There were around 130 people who wanted to go!  The Students for Life group wasn't prepared for that many people, so they were short on cars.  The leader kept saying, if God wants us all to go, He'll find a way.  If not, He'll make His plans known.  After almost everyone had left, and 6 people had volunteered to stay behind and pray in the Port, there were 10 left.  And one had a car.  A car with 5 seats. :P  I was literally starting to say that I would stay behind and pray when a random car drove up.  The driver called, "You guys need rides to the clinic?"  What a miracle!  We were all able to fit in the cars, and we showed up at the clinic only about 10 minutes behind everyone else.

2 1/2 hours of prayer in the middle of two abortion clinics is spiritually taxing.  To watch the women walk in, surrounded by "Pro-choice Escorts" on all sides, with one sidewalk counselor trying to speak with her is hard.  It was powerful to know that so many people were there praying for an end to this monstrosity.

After arriving back on campus, I ate a long-overdue lunch and settled down to do some reading....... and I awoke 1 1/2 hours later.  :D  Apparently I was tired.  Thankfully, after that I was wide awake.  My roommate, another friend, and I took a walk after dinner, and we got to see Steubenville and Weirton (across the river) from a high hill, which was really cool.  Saturday I also went to Lord's Day- I thought it was great!  Definitely a household that's on my "short list", but we'll have to see.  I've only been to one!  And THEN 4 of us watched a movie.  Thankfully, we managed to still get to bed at a good time.  

Sunday, I left my dorm 14 minutes before mass started.... I walked into the chapel only to find that every. single.  seat in the chapel was full.  I had to sit in the adoration chapel.  It was packed!!  I'm reconsidering my 10:30 mass time.  :P  A couple of us decided to walk down the hill to the flatbread place/coffeeshop, which was really yummy.  I think it's going to be our post-mass tradition, until it's super cold or it snows and we can't make it down without sliding.  :)

The only other notable thing that happened on Sunday was swing dancing.  It was a lot of fun- I'm finally getting the hang of East Coast swing after doing West Coast for a long time.  And there were actually guys there who knew what they were doing.  Thank goodness!!

This morning I had my interesting poetry class, then a 5 hour break, French, a half-hour break in which I ate a hurried dinner, and Foundations- which still doesn't feel like the 2 hours and 40 minutes that it really is.  Whew!  It's a really fascinating class and my teacher 1- knows what she's talking about 2 - is happy to answer any and all of our questions and 3 - loves what she's teaching and makes me exited to learn the material.  The only downside to the class is that it only meets once a week, so I always have a lot of homework.  I guess if I spread it our over the week instead of doing all 67 pages of reading in 2 nights, it would be more manageable.  *sigh*  Yeah, I know.

Exciting news 1- I'm having a visitor from Thursday through Sunday!  A friend from high school is coming to visit me .... it'll be lots of fun!!

Exciting news 2- I just attended training for being an EM (Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion), so (hopefully) in a week or so, I'll be officially "trained and commission by the Diocese of Steubenville", and then I'll be able to distribute Communion at Mass!!  *does the happy dance*

xoxo,

Random Thoughts and Musings

Well,  I made it through my first weekend at college.... homework, homework, mass, homework, and swing dancing.  Oh, and a movie. :D  Even though I had tons of reading to do for Media, Poetry, and Foundations of Catholicism, (most) was interesting reading, so it wasn't all that bad.

After being here for a week and a half:

     Isn't this sewing kit awesome?  The best part is *whispers* it was only $4!!

     Yes, I was excited about trail mix.  The sad part about the trail mix is that it's almost gone.  :(  PS- that's dried mango in there, in case you're wondering.  It's quite yummy!)

     Some may call me crazy for being excited about laundry detergent, but I have honestly never used scented detergent before.  I must have looked ridiculous, going down the detergent aisle in the store, smelling every one...... and I found something out- many detergents smell funny.  Not this one, though!

      *repeat everything I said about detergent, except substituting dryer sheets*  (side note- these smell AMAZING!!)

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I have had bad luck with lamps lately.  So, I brought a lamp for my desk with me.  The very first weekend, we put a lightbulb in, plugged it in, but it didn't work.  I turned and turned the switch, but it just wouldn't go on.  So my parents went to Walmart and bought me a new lamp (Thanks, Mom and Dad!).  The next day, I put a light bulb in, plugged it in, but it didn't work.  What on earth....??  I noticed the light bulb was a bit loose, so I took it out and put it back in- this is what happened: 

Yes, the silly lightbulb broke right off, leaving the part pictured above inside socket.  It took me a day or two to get the silly remainder of the light bulb out, and another day to be brave enough to put a new bulb in.  And it better not happen again, because I only have one 40 watt light bulb left! (Yes, Mom and Dad, you did buy me 4 bulbs, and yes, I can count- I gave one to someone else. :) )  So now, I have a lovely working light.  Two, actually.  One on my desk and one attached to my bed for reading.  Yay!

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I have realized that as I go on in college, silly things get more and more exciting.  Case in point: I love getting quarters, because I need quarters for the washer and dryer.  Laugh if you want, I did!

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Today was a very exciting day.  I not only got 2 envelopes but a huge box from home!!  Dad sent my voter registration card so now I can submit my absentee form thingymabobber.  AND I got letters and pictures from some of my nieces and nephews.  And then in my box, I got the blanket my grandma knitted for me, a bulletin board (which is now on my wall with pictures of my family and friends from home), gluten free snicker doodles, gingersnaps, and (surprise) chocolate chip cookies, crackers, hard shoes, poodle socks, and computer paper.  It made me very happy.

I'm off to bed...... 8 am classes come early!

xoxo,