Just Another Passing Summer

Posted on August 29, 2010 by Jess

So it has come to my attention that I live a life void of fun and anything interesting. I’ve said this before and I’m going to say it again, being a college student is so restricting. I can’t wait for this final year to be over so I can move on to a new chapter in my life. But until then, I have absolutely nothing to talk about. I hate having all this space for my personal use, but nothing personal to put here.

The TAABP was put on hold before it even got started. My brother and I both finished our books, but then he got some amazing news about teaching a class at the university he works at. All of his time has been spent making lecture notes and writing a syllabus. One day our awesome idea of writing book reports for fun will continue.

Our beloved Wicket has been gone now for 2 months. I’ve been going home quite often for different reasons and home just isn’t the same without her mindlessly roaming around. But we’re getting used to the emptiness. The one person I didn’t think would be that affected by her being gone has surprised me. My dad visits her grave often bearing yellow flowers because yellow was her favorite color.

In other summer news, my best friend got married. (Yay Mel!) It was a beautiful wedding and a fun party. Next on the agenda is my birthday. Which falls on labor day this year. This year’s celebration is going be epic since last year my birthday fell by the wayside because of my dad’s open heart surgery. Which was understandable. We were all too worried and on edge to even remember that it was birthday time. (My aunt’s birthday is 3 days before mine and my sister’s so we usually celebrate all at the same time.) The plan is to spend the weekend with family and friends. Eating good food and cake is a celebration to me! I can’t believe I’m going to be 25. Just another reason I want to be out of school already. I want to be enjoying my 20s, not hating them.

Classes start tomorrow and I am so ready. My schedule won’t be as hectic as it usually is and I’m looking forward to becoming one step closer to graduating, but not having to kill myself to do so. I’m continuing with the research project I was involved in last semester, while taking 2 lectures. Next semester, my last, should be even easier. Then its time to move on to the real world.

I guess I can say a few words about Stephen King’s The Gunslinger. It was an easy read, but quite confusing. I was told constantly by my brother that stuff would make sense as I made my way through the series, but I’ve only read the first book so far… so I am still confused. There were a couple of parts that kept me intrigued enough to continue on towards finishing. It’s not a long book at all so it’s not that difficult to get through.

One day I’ll get around to book two in the Dark Tower series.

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The Academically Amazing Book Project (TAABP)

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Jess

My brother came up with this idea when I asked if I could borrow a book he owned but the library didn’t. He has been wanting me to read The Dark Tower series by Stephen King for months, but school kept me busy and I didn’t have a lot of leisure time for pleasure reading. This summer has been pretty chill so I decided to start on the series before school started back up. When I asked to borrow the book, my brother had one condition, I had to write a book report about it when I was finished. I seriously thought he was joking. But he put an unexpected twist on it, the book report would be funny and not taken seriously. So we then came up with these rules:

1. Selected books must be Fiction.

2. There are no minimal page requirements, however, they can not exceed 600 pages.

3. You MUST read at least 75%, the rest can be skimmed.

4. Spark notes and cliff notes are strictly prohibited.

5. Watching the movie DOES NOT COUNT. Duh. (Neither Do Audio Books)

6. Reports are not to exceed five paragraphs.

7. Reports MUST include a synopsis, at least one basic character analysis, and a general reflection.

8. Humor and brutality is encouraged.

9. YOU MAY NOT CHOOSE YOUR OWN BOOK!!!!!!!! Your assignment will be given to you.

10. Reports should be completed in a timely manner based on the book and it’s generally perceived difficulty level.

11. Any rule can be exempted on the basis of awesome epicness. Argument must be given and agreed upon unanimously prior to report being made.

So my book assignment was already given to me, The Gunslinger by Stephen King. I had to come up with a book for Josh to read, so I am making him read Twilight. Bwhaha. I can’t wait to read his book report. It’s going to be hilarious!

I will post both mine and his book reports as we finish them!

Posted in Personal, book project | 1 Comment

Wicket

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Jess

I can vividly remember the day my parents bought her for us. I was 6 years old and my twin sister and I had brought home outstanding report cards from school. We held them out proudly and waited for our mom’s reaction. She said we could finally get that surprise we had been talking about. I remember Jenny and I squealing about a possible new Barbie or toy.

She was little and fluffy. My mom told the lady selling the puppies that she wanted a female and Wicket was the only female in the litter. My mom paid the lady 25 dollars to take her home with us. The best 25 dollars my mother has ever spent! I remember wanting to call her Sandy because of the color of her fur. But my brother came home from school and immediately called her Wicket because her face looked like an ewok from Star Wars. The name stuck.

That was all 18 years ago. She would have been 19 years old this November. We really couldn’t have asked for a better dog. She gave us more years than she needed to. She died last Wednesday. Her health took a turn for the worst years ago when the vet said she had Kidney Disease and it was just a matter of time before it would slowly kill her. He told us to limit her sodium intake and under no circumstances, feed her any people food. We followed their directions strictly for years. Maybe that is why she lived so long. These last few months have been hard. We have noticed she wouldn’t eat or drink as much. She lost so much weight and her fur wasn’t as glossy as it used to be. She stopped playing and pretty much slept all the time. My mother knew it was time when she started having constant seizures and couldn’t move at all. She made the decision to take her to the vet and have her put to sleep.

This has been harder than I had ever imagined. We had been preparing for this for the last 4 years when she was beginning to hit the end of a dog’s lifespan. But nothing can really prepare you for the reality of a presence that was so strong for so many years, to just be gone. My twin sister is taking it the hardest. My heart breaks for her every time she comes home and immediately goes to her grave and just sits. It would have been selfish to expect her to give us any more. She literally took care of this family and I truly believe she stayed as long as she did because she felt like she needed to continue taking care of us.

The house is so different without her. She ran that house the day we moved in. Now it feels like something is constantly missing. It’s going to take a long time to get used to not having her around or thinking about her needs constantly. I would think at night if the dog had been let out and if she had been let back in and then I would remember.

But it’s getting easier. And I hope it continues to get easier everyday.

Posted in History, Personal | 5 Comments

Summertime!!!

Posted on June 20, 2010 by Jess

I can’t believe another school year has come and gone. Feels like I’ve been in school forever…oh wait…I have! But summertime is finally here and I’m ready for a big break from school. I’ve done so much already since I’ve been off. I’ve been working at the tv station on campus part time and my family has already been to Florida for a wedding and a much needed vacation. My aunt got engaged last September and decided on a beach wedding. It was beautiful.

The weather was nice, the food was great, and I got tons of great pictures. The rest of the week was spent relaxing at the beach and spending time with all the family that decided to stay the week too. I was glad to come home, but I still miss being so close to the beach. By the way, my new header for this site is actually a picture I took while on vacation at sunset! Absolutely stunning! The only thing on the summer agenda left is Melissa’s wedding that is happening in August. Then it’s back to school for another year before I graduate.

My one problem this summer is that I have a lot of down time, alone in my apartment, with not a lot to do. It’s hard to have so much free time and not have a lot of money to spend to keep me from boredom. I plan on going to the local library tomorrow and getting a library card so I can check out books. I’m also getting back into playing The Sims 3. I just need to take it day by day until school starts back up and my free time turns into studying and homework time.

Kupo is doing well for almost being a year old. He has so much energy and sometimes its hard to keep up with him. But I’m so glad I adopted him. He keeps me company and is always doing the cutest things. It’s also nice to have something to take care of instead of myself.

I haven’t been doing any creative cooking lately, so no new recipes to share. It’s hard to cook and bake when I’m the only one around to eat. I end up throwing so much away before it goes bad or eating the same stuff for days. I plan on trying to do more “Cooking for One” type of recipes. I actually tried searching for blogs or recipe sites that have these types of recipes and they are hard to find. Which is sad because a lot of people live on their own and love to cook. So that is definitely something I strive to do this summer as well.

Next weekend is the Bridal Shower I’m throwing for Melissa. I love hosting parties and planning for the food and the decorations. I still have lots to get done before I head home on Friday. But I might have a few recipes I can share after its all said and done.

Posted in Celebration, Personal | 1 Comment

Salad? At 9 Am?

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Jess

Weather in Kentucky. It doesn’t get much better than warm, sunny weekends and cold, snowy weekdays. Vacationing in Florida for a week in June keeps looking better and better.

What’s worse than the weather in Kentucky are people’s manners. Last week I was on the shuttle headed towards campus. The girl sitting in front of me had a take-out box sitting on her lap. It was around 9:00 in the morning and no one on the shuttle was talking. This girl opens her take-out box, gets a metal fork out of her backpack and starts eating whatever she has in this container. At first I was thinking breakfast to go? Clever! Until the smell hit me. It was putrid. I had to hold my breath for a couple of seconds to keep from gagging. It smelled… vinegary? And not just vinegary, but room-temperature vinegary.  I peeked around the seat to see what she was chowing down on. It was SALAD! At 9Am! And from the looks of it and the smell of it, salad that had been from the night before and left in her car all night. I quickly looked around to see if anyone else was just as disgusted as I was. Oh yeah… not happy students.  She wolfed this salad down in minutes, licked her fork like it was going out of style, made the mistake of getting up on a moving bus to throw this container away and I think you can guess what happened next. Ooooh yes, she loses her footing and this container goes flying!! It was like something out of a movie… no joke. I would have felt bad for the poor girl but then I kept remembering the smell that had the potency to wake myself up without coffee and everyone else on the shuttle for that matter. Never eat on a bus people! Good rule of thumb to follow.

Computer labs. Are for working on computers and studying quietly. Not for chatting it up with your best friend on how this girl you know is sleeping around with all your best guy friends and not caring how discreet you are about it in front of other people. I kid you not. I heard about 6 different phone conversations today while working in a computer lab on campus. And I’m not talking whispered phone conversations, I’m talking loud in your face, the person might as well be present, phone conversations. I guess I can name this as my biggest pet peeve. When people don’t give any thought to what they are doing and how it is affecting the people around them. Your cell is ringing? Fine! But be polite and step outside to have your gab fest! I for one don’t want anyone else listening in on my phone conversations. You would think others would feel the same. Some girl even went as far as to put the person she was talking to on speaker phone! I just… can’t… wrap my head around it.

I think all the studying I’ve been doing for the past 5 days has caused me to go into overly observant mode. This stuff always bothers me, but normally I just cringe and go with it.

That vacation in Florida can’t come soon enough.

Posted in Random | 1 Comment