Be Intentional

Each semester, you as a student get to schedule the following semester's classes. Take it from me, BE STRATEGIC when you are planning your schedule. Since I am a business major, I oftentimes do not have Friday classes (which is amazing) and this weekend, I got to come home yesterday, slept late in my own bed this morning and am getting an extra day with my family. I love this part of my schedule. The weekends I don't get to come home, I can travel elsewhere for a longer weekend OR I can have an extra long, lazy weekend at my college casa. Anyways, make your schedule exactly how you want it. Sometimes classes are only offered on certain days or at certain times and this can really screw up your plan; however, for the most part, you can get it pretty close to how you want it.

Also, remember to keep into consideration if you are a morning or night person. Don't schedule yourself ALL 8:00am classes if you hate the morning!! Take classes later into the day so that you aren't miserable and can focus better. Or, if you like the morning and want to be done with class before lunch, schedule those 8:00am's! (Goodluck with them ha I hate the mornings!)

As graduation nears, I am quickly learning that this freedom of scheduling will no longer be available to me post-graduation. You might say this is ONE of the many reasons I am going to grad school next year lol So, soak up the amazingness of creating your own schedule while it lasts!!

Travel in Style!

So I am sitting here in the Birmingham airport, trying to be productive while I am waiting on my flight home to New Orleans and I just thought to myself how I really need to get Sheri to make me a cute carry-on bag for when I travel! She has told me that she can make bags, so why not customize a travel bag?? I love traveling and having bags created exactly how I want them would make me so very happy! Heck, I could get an entire line of travel bags from Sheri. Carry-ons, duffels, lunch bags (SO CUTE, I saw), garment bag or even a laundry bag!

Do you like traveling? Where have you traveled to?

Is any other place better than America? I personally love my country but I love LOVE Europe over us! ha. It may have something to do with the history in Europe (I love history). But they do things so different over there. Why?? Any thoughts??

Parking Tickets Ruin Any Day

Parking tickets really blow. I had a test this morning (which was FINE...that is suppose to be in my dry, sarcastic tone) and after I left the business building, I found a stupid parking ticket on my car. It said that I was parked in an unmarked spot. Ok, ONE, I have parked there for the past 2 weeks and never gotten a ticket. TWO, there were lines on the ground. THREE, there is a cement parking block in the grass behind where I parked. UGH. It makes me so mad.

Luckily, there is an appeal system in place at my university. My appeal (which I did TODAY) will be presented in front of the traffic appeals council (comprised of students) and then they will decide if I have to pay the $50 fine. I hope they are gracious!!! Seriously, I think I have personally paid for one of the campus officer's salary in the last 4 years of parking on campus. ha. Pretty sad how many tickets I have gotten.

My daddy always taught me that if there is no place to park that you should make your own parking spot. We drive a lot of SUV's in my family. When I came to college 4 years ago, I figured that still applied (I was driving a Jeep Liberty at the time). So, in like 4 weeks I got 2 parking tickets for making my own parking spots. haha. I give daddy credit for those! He still jokes about it til this day!

Does your campus security get on your nerves? Do they give crazy parking tickets? Are they effective in keeping you safe??

Is sleep optional?

For my whole life, my Daddy (who I am the spitting image of and much like in personality) has told me that sleep is optional. We are both night owls and become very productive at night (we also procrastinate like nobody's business and love music from the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's). I have always believed him. There are not enough hours in the day to do everything that everyone should experience in their short life time. We have to live it up while we are here! HOWEVER, two things, ONE: Some people just need sleep. If you are one of those people, figure this out (preferably before you go to college because college is all about NOT sleeping). And TWO: even those people such as myself and my Daddy HAVE to get some sleep or else you will GET SICK. Trust me. I can speak from experience. Lack of sleep for many consecutive days decreases your immune system and everybody knows how many millions of germs exists, especially at college (since everyone is all over each other in the dorm, sorority house, fraternity house, parties...). So what do ya'll think? Is sleep optional? How do you experienced college goers do it? Naps? Sleep through classes?....

Turn my swag on....yeeeeaaahhhhhhhh

We played ADPi tonight in flag football. CHI O v ADPi. OMG. Talk about craaaazy! Competition started with the players and kept on going into the fans. Can I just say that, WE WON!! 6-0, OT. It was beautiful. My sisters get so intense. It is unreal. Our coaches (for tonight), were saying that they need my sisters on their football team (haha they play for my university...real, tackle football). There were flags almost every play. ADPi got a least 5 downs each time they were on offense...if not more. The calls were unbelievable...but Chi O's prevailed, as always. Girls were flipping, sliding, elbowing, pushing... all over the place. Wish I would have taped the game. This one goes down in the books.

Our pledges finally came (Chi O's are always late!!). They supported well. They were loud and one girl did a little half time show for us :) Which reminds me, Bid Day was awesome last night. We got an amaaazing pledge class. So exciting. In fact, supposedly, ADPi is mad at us because we took all of their girls haha. So the game tonight just sealed the deal. Oh snap.

Hootie Freakin Hoo

BID DAY

I am not a rush fan (as I have said a few times, I think), but this year was my last and I was kind of emotional. Yes. I admit it. I cried today at pref. We only had 3 pref parties and I had a speech and choked up during all 3 of them. ha. Oh well. I can not believe no more rush, ever again.

Though rush in general is not a favorite season of mine, I do LOVE Bid Day. Seeing all the PNM's open their bids and FREAK out is so fun and then welcoming them into our sisterhood is awesome. It always makes me so proud to be a Chi Omega. Squeal, as the guys on campus prefer to call it, is tomorrow night. Our chapter has a tradition to eat at Daves' Pizza in Homewood every year after squeal, pictures and presents in our house. I love this too because we rent out all of Daves' and have the place to ourselves to eat a ton of really good pizza.

I am pumped to have my life back. Stressful week ahead. Lots of work and work work to do. Excited to have more time to do it all though!

I will write about how SQUEAL goes tomorrow :)

There is a reason it is called RUSH

Rush FINALLY begins tonight! Philanthropy night today and tomorrow, Theme night Saturday, Pref Night Sunday and BID DAY ON MONDAY! I can't believe it is here. OMG! I am so excited that it is my last one. Rush has never really been my season. It will be so much fun and I am going to be so nostalgic this weekend; but, I am really glad rush is almost over, forever. Weird.

If you are going through delayed rush this weekend, or anytime in the near future...goodluck! Be yourself. Ask questions. Try and place yourself in the house and see if it is right for you. All the pretty decorations will come down after rush, so think about the girls you talk to, the relationships you make/made. Have fun. Smile. Put yourself out there.

Hootie Hoo

You snooz...maybe you won't lose?

Everyone has those professors that just talk and talk and talk and you have NO IDEA what they are talking about nor do you really want to know what they are talking about. Or they talk until they just put you to sleep. One of my classes today felt like that. I wanted to be everywhere else but listening to my professor basically talk to himself. I almost felt like I was interrupting a conversation. ha. Talent, skill, knowledge, intelligence. My professor is lacking none of these. It is the excitement, attention-getting (and keeping) lectures that so many professors lack. Anyways, I got through it. Though I don't have too much of a clue what we discussed.

This is so frustrating because we (and I really mean my Moma and Daddy when I say we) are paying a lot of money for education, and giving up a lot of time (that we could make money) to receive an education. And when my professor puts me to sleep, I feel like all of the money and time are going to waste. I suppose we can all learn something from even a boring professor; however, it is unlikely that he/she will keep a college students' attention long enough to achieve such.

We all have to do things we don't want to do...I know that....but I guess it doesn't always have to be fun :) Keep those eyes open during class...maybe you will catch something good!!!

The Intensity of College Intramurals

College intramurals can get INTENSE, ok! Chi Omega, TEAM A, had our second game tonight at 10:30pm! We played independent women (very good independent women). But, we actually scored a touchdown and only lost 6-13. haha. That is GOOD for us! One of my good friends and sisters got elbowed in the mouth and chipped 2 of her teeth. She is a little upset (that is an understatement) because she is getting married right after graduation in May. yikes! It took two of my best friends and I to block this one girl from getting to our QB. Insane rushing going on here. Another good friend and sister of mine, bumped the, shall we call her, wide receiver and/or running back of the opposing team out of bounds and knocked her down, to the ground. It was so hilarious because my sister then proceeded to run to her side to make sure she was ok. I was shocked the refs didn't call intentional penalty or something, to be honest. haha. We are very amusing to watch. I wish we could pad up, but we have to stick to flags. Can you imagine? A bunch of girls playing tackle football. lol.

So I am pretty positive that every college/university has a trillion intramurals like we do here at Samford. flag football, soccer, softball, basketball, dodgeball, ultimate frisbee, bowling, the list goes on. PARTICIPATE in at least one of these. It is such a good way to meet people/bond with your already-close friends. You stay active. And it is so much fun! Just think, intramurals aren't really offered after you leave college so soak up the time to play organized sports while you still can. Plus, you will get some GOOD laughs out of it all. (i.e. rumor has it a girl was pantsed at our game last week, that I couldn't make because of the flu...crazy)!!

Work hard. Play hard! :)

College Scheduling

Today I had my afternoon class. For 3 years, I have avoided afternoon classes and gotten finished with class by 1:00pm. If you can do this...I would HIGHLY suggest!! You get the ENTIRE afternoon to do whatever you want (work, sleep, homewok...etc.) My afternoon class is from 2:15-3:20 and it's so aggravating. It breaks up my afternoon..but, as my Moma says, "Oh well, you gota do what you gota do!" ha

When I think about it, I can't even complain though. The accounting majors have a class on Wednesday NIGHTS from 5:15-7:30pm. EW! I feel so bad for them. Why can't they teach Tax 2 at a more decent hour? Anyone have any good explanations why not??

Anyways, all I am saying is, get your classes over with as early as possible if I were you.

So, AFTER my late, aggravating afternoon class, I went to a Welcome BAck Event with the Brock School of Business. It was fun. I got to see some Professors and peers I had yet to see since being back. One of the Business Faculty members reminded me of the awfulness of the "real world." Ha. She definitely reminded me, no summers, no spring breaks and no long Christmas vacations. Just throwing it out there, maybe I should fail a few classes so I can stay an undergrad a little longer...?? Who in the heck would want to leave this for THAT! haha

Ok, sorry this was a bit of venting and a very random tonight!

Peace out

The Directionally Challenged

Ok, so today I had a working lunch with my boss at Dorm Suite Dorm (Sheri) and her sister (my previous boss, Vikki. Funny I know). We ate in downtown Birmingham at Urban Standard. (So good. Eclectic atmosphere. Cool vibe. Great food. Totally recommend it if you are in the Ham.) Anyways, I got completely LOST! What else is new in my life?? A simple, "It is on 2nd Ave N between 23rd and 24th Streets" did nothing for me. NOTHING! I walked around looking like a tourist in the city I have lived in for the past 3 years and, not to mention, an idiot. And... I have a GPS on my phone.

Directionally challenged is what I like to call it. It just sounds so much better than "No Sense of Direction" or "Bad with Directions" or just plain "Dumb." ha! May I HIGHLY encourage everyone who is driving and moving to a new (and unknown) city to invest in a GPS. Whether that be on your phone or in your car or mobile (can be put in your car or in other peoples' cars), get one! They prove to be fabulous Christmas presents parents.

My freshman year of college, I moved to a NEW city (Birmingham, AL) without having any knowledge of the town and no GPS. Talk about mistake! I got so so so lost and ended up in really sketchy areas of town (or other towns when I went out of town) a LOT! It happened so much that my parents got me a GPS for Christmas. Well the following Spring Break, my roommate, good friend and I decided to go to Atlanta, GA, Clearwater, FL, Orlando, FL, and then back to Birmingham. I am not proud to admit, but we did not listen to Genie (my GPS) because I was one of the first students to have one and we didn't know better. THUS, we ended up driving 20 minutes from Chattanooga, TN instead of Atlanta, GA. Don't even ask me how. I think we missed a turn or a merge or something. But we got penalized for not listening to Genie and NEVER AGAIN have I not listened to her. Whew! Talk about wasting time and gas!

All that being said, get yourself a GPS and listen to it! haha! They are worth every penny and will save you a lot of heartache, stress, time, gas, frustration and keep you safe.

Happy Travels College Kids