A day of doing more than nothing.

So I'm back in the dorm after spending a week off school for Thanksgiving.  It was quite a nice Thanksgiving.  I'll always be eternally grateful (/thankful given the holiday) for all that Lauren and her family have done for me.  However, I must admit that I have been missing my family back in Pikeville.  It's difficult knowing that I'm so close to seeing them, and yet still so far, with exactly one month to go today.  I'll be back in Kentucky for a week, which is a small amount of time after six months away.  And it's an even smaller amount of time when you consider the fact that I have no idea when I'll be back.  It may just be Christmas of 2012.  Who knows?  I certainly don't.

The past week is actually kind of a blur.  The semester is so close to being done (two weeks, plus one week of finals), that I was just antsy to get back and get it over with.  It's nice to be back.  I spent time in both Kirksville and Hannibal, had turkey, had leftovers, hung out with mah peeps, went to a Lutheran church service . . . all that fun stuff.  There's a tremendous amount of stress placed upon me that won't ease until finals are over, and I won't get into it, but let's just say it's got my pulse rocking.  We'll see what happens.  I'll do my best, and after that it's no longer up to me.  I'm determined to kick next semester's ass, that's for sure.  As soon as finals are over on the sixteenth of this month, Kat and I will be whisked off to St. Louis, where we'll be seeing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra perform.  YAY.  I'm excited.

It's actually kind of crazy when you realize that, not only the semester, but the year is almost over.  I mean, at the beginning of this year, I was finishing up college applications for three schools: Brigham Young University-Idaho, Morehead State University, and Truman State University.  As time slowly progressed, BYU-I and MSU faded into the background completely, and I found myself dreading the prospect of having to go to one of those schools, both for different reasons.  I still remember with perfect clarity the moment I received my letter from Truman.  It was still fairly early on February 7, 2011.  I saw the letter from Truman in the mailbox and knew exactly what it was.  Heart hammering unceasingly, I stumbled back to my bedroom and opened it.  I fell to my knees to moment I saw the "Congratulations!"  It still amazes me that I've been accepted.  I told my mother and promptly burst into tears, I do confess.  I called Lauren and Kat and made it sound like I had been rejected at first, before telling them the good news.

I'll never take for granted my fortune of being here, of being surrounded by so many wonderful people who influence my life.  My life certainly hasn't been a walk in the park up until this point, and I was fooling myself by thinking that it would all come so easily to me in college just because I knew I deserved better than what I had had.  I know I need to continue to work hard for everything, to not just coast on by.  This semester has definitely been difficult, filled with amounts of stress I didn't even know existed.  My best friends and I have argued, we've given each other the silent treatment, and I can't count the number of times I've sobbed on my bed.  Yet I wouldn't trade any of this for anything in the world.  After years of people believing that I would not amount to anything, I'm finally taking the path necessary to be more than anyone dreamed was possible for me.  So even though I'm definitely not the biggest patriot on the block, I take this month of Thanksgiving to reflect on my eternal gratitude and thankfulness to all of those who have helped me, have loved me, and have believed in me.  My first and second family, my friends, I love you all.  And despite the fact that I didn't intend this post to be mushy, I mean it.  Thank you for everything.

Ashlee

Registering: the task of fools

So today was finally the day myself and other lowly freshmen with a small amount of credits could register for classes next spring.  While some people had an easier time with it (i.e. Kat), I was not one of them, and neither were the majority of the other freshmen who attempted to register this morning.  It was supposed to open at 7am, but the website was overloaded with the hoard of people trying to get on, so it kept crashing.  Those who were able to get on snagged up the good classes, leaving the rest of us to weep in misery.  I received an override for Creative Writing, however, which is good.  Here's my schedule for next semester:

FREN 320 - Composition & Conversation

FREN 225 - French Pronunciation (a one-credit class basically for my own benefit)

ENG 204 - Creative Writing

LING 328 - Intro to Linguistics

COMM 170 - Public Speaking (Yay.  Not.)

POL 250 - Intro to International Relations (might be dropped depending on whether or not I can get another override)

MUSI 145 - University Chorus (just for the hell of it.)

Sounds like a lot, but it should be okay.  Much better than this semester, anyway.  Here's hopin'.

Dénaturé?

Okay, maybe the title is a little too dramatic for my tastes.  Anyway, it comes from one of Bruno Pelletier's songs of the same name from his most recent album, Microphonium.  Said song is currently stuck in my head.  But anyway.

November has begun, and as such NaNoWriMo has, too.  I am not off to a good start, to say the least.  I got about 4k done by the second day, but then made the decision to start over.  I'm actually cheating "sort of" because I'm now doing a series of short stories, rather than one long novel.  Technically, I'm just considered a NaNo Rebel.  But I don't particularly care.  I've written so many short stories over the past two years, I'm wondering if I'm even capable of writing novels anymore.  The thought scares me slightly.  But yeah.  So I'm rather behind when it comes to word count, but there's a write-in tonight at the Student Union, so hopefully I'll get some hardcore major writing done there.

In other news, outside the NaNo front and on the side of college junk, the play rehearsals are in full swing.  We're now expected to have the entire script memorized, and as someone who has the memory of hole-filled Swiss cheese, this is bad.  Especially since I have about four monologues I have to do.  But I'm working on it.  The only male in the play, who also happens to be from France is therefore fluent in French, has his lines down no problem.  But that's, obviously, to be expected.  Doesn't stop me from being jealous, though.

When it comes to classes . . . don't ask.  Lots of drama there that I won't get into.  Let's just say I'm going to have to work my ass/butt/bum off next semester.  I got a B on my French midterm, which depresses me even though it shouldn't.  I've been feeling very insecure about my French "skills" lately, so this just kind of added insult to injury.  I know I'm expecting too much of myself when it comes to my major, but when I suck at everything else, isn't it kind of natural to be wanting to be good at something?  Oh, well.  I shall keep trying.  I still don't know how I did on my short composition I had to do in which we utilized the conditional verb form. Not sure I want to know anymore.

This is a very happy blog post, isn't it?  Maybe it'd be happier if I didn't have to go to Logic in the next one or two minutes.  Plus work right after.  Hey, at least it's the weekend afterward.  Helloooo, The Sims 3: Pets.  Plus script memorizing, studying, and a whole bunch of other stuff.  BUT this includes a Hana Pestle concert, a dance recital, and a screening of The Help.  So this is good.  Toodles.