Good things are happening!

Clemenoodles cuddles ALWAYS boost my mood!

After a week or two of feeling pretty exhausted, stressed, unmotivated, and generally 'meh', some really great stuff happened these past few days which has really boosted my mood.

First, this:

"Thank you for submitting your petition to the General Petitions Committee.  Your petition has been read by the doctor at Campus Health who has seen all of the materials, has carefully weighed your specific circumstances, and has voted on your petition.
We are happy to inform you that your petition, requesting a complete retroactive withdrawal from Spring semester, 2012, has been approved."
 
Then I got a 98 % on a Roman literature test I was about 99% sure I got a C or B- on. Don't know how I pulled that one off but I'll take it.

Then I stopped by the fine arts graduation services offices and got my degree check to GRADUATE IN DECEMBER! Still a couple things I have to do for that but no problems popped up with the initial check so I should be good to go. Something felt so freaking satisfying about filling out a form with all my degree information and letting them know how to spell my full name to go on my diploma. gahh :)

And finally, I've lost 30 lbs in exactly 12 weeks and I'm feeling great about it! 10 more will put me about at what I was in high school, but I didn't really work out in high school so hopefully I will be much more toned at that weight now.

This quote has always seemed kind of dumb to me since everyone loses weight at different paces and there's no way of knowing what effect a certain amount of time and effort will have on your body...

 ...BUT, in the past week a couple people have asked me if I've lost weight or told me I look skinny which is really awesome to hear. I think anyone who has tried to lose weight knows how meaningful it is to have the hard work manifest itself on your body and to have other people take notice. Very rewarding.

So things are going really well right now, which is great because I was feeling really overworked and a bit down over the past couple weeks. I'm still a bit exhausted and stressed from work and school but knowing summer is just around the corner is a bit of a relief- and knowing that by the end of 2013 I'll have a degree and an even stronger, healthier body is enough to motivate me through the rest of the year!

Sorry for this rather braggy-bordering-on-gloaty blog post. I know sometimes it's looked down upon (especially in the land of the internet) to get really excited about yourself. But oh well, blogging and social media is narcissistic by nature :) and (because apparently I'm really feeling the inspirational quotes plastered all over the internet today):

 <3  

Registered.

It's been a fairly busy week!

The retroactive medical withdrawal that I mentioned I had to work on in my hair mask post has finally been completed. It involved me working for five hours on Friday typing a statement, emailing professors and campus health, and filling out paperwork.. and then spending the last three mornings visiting each professors office, going to the health center, filling out MORE paperwork, and putting together a big 'ol stack of stuff... which I turned in to administration this morning. WOO! It's something that has been stressing me out and sitting at the back of my mind for a year and it feels good to have it totally DONE.

On top of that, the spring 4th ave street fair was this past weekend. Street fair is kinda fun because we close the inside of the restaurant off to customers and just serve slices in the front. I work counter so I get to be the one manning the register, serving customers, and dealing with lots and lots of hungry people. It's nice to hang out outside for a whole spring evening, and my work is sufficiently reduced since I don't have to deal with pickups or keeping the dining room clean... but it can get pretty crazy with all those sweaty tourists demanding pizza.

So that was Friday night and Sunday night. Sunday we closed around 7 for our biannual Brooklyn party that happens every street fair. Brooklyn parties are effing insane. I've gone and had fun in the past but I had no desire to drink my face off and watch my coworkers get crazy sloppy this year so I went home after I was done closing and ate dinner and watched battlestar galactica instead.

On Saturday, our friends Roland and Annalise got married at the lovely Tucson Botanical Gardens. I know Annalise from Mama Eddas (She worked there after I had left but I saw her all the time since I was always in there with Linn, Kris, and Nick) and Roland has been one of Colton's friends since high school. It was soooo gorgeous at the garden at dusk and their ceremony was simple, short, and sweet. The reception was immediately after and it was nice because you could explore the gardens while waiting for everything to be set up for dinner. It was a very, very fun night and I am very happy they invited me :)

MOST exciting thing that happened this week though, is that I got totally registered for my LAST classes as an undergraduate EVER.

The way the registration process works, it takes 2-3 weeks to register for each upcoming semester. Once the class catalog is online, you have to plan your schedule. Then you have to fill out a form (at least for my department) with the classes in your major and that has to be turned in by a certain date depending on your standing. Then about a week later you have your "enrollment appointment" when you can register for any other classes that don't require department consent. Hopefully by that point you know whether or not your department was able to register you for the classes you wanted and you can submit new forms if necessary.

This semester, everything went off without a hitch! It was the first time I haven't neglected filling out my form until too late (which results in having to turn it in with students of lower class standing/being lower on the registration totem pole) so that might be why. My classes next semester sound REALLY awesome too.

They are:

An upper division classics class on Greek and Roman influences on 1930s art
Film Styles and Genres, a 400 level film and television class which changes emphasis each semester. Last fall I took it when it was Westerns, next fall it is Crime Drama. 
Screen Artists, another 400 level FTV course with rotating emphasis. This spring I'm taking it on Stars of History and Today, next fall it will be on the Coen Brothers. Goodie!
My FTV Senior Seminar, which will be on Cult Cinema.

I've already had all the professors teaching these courses and they're all awesome so I'm excited.

I'm even more excited for the end of December this year, when I will be walking across the stage in a cap and gown and receiving a diploma! Finishing college. What an accomplishment that will be. I imagine it will feel something like this:

Aaah. That will be nice.

For now though, it's 5 1/2 more weeks of this semester, a crazybusy summer, and then one more round of syllabi, essays, and school-centric life. At least the end is in sight!

<3

Fall Fix-Up: School

My friend Jessica has this as a doormat in her apartment :)

 Fall means a lot of things, but for the majority of people under the age of 22 (and a lot of people over the age of 22 as well) it means school. back to hitting the (400 dollar) books, trading sleep for good grades and a social life, playing frizbee on the quad (this really happens at my school. such a cliche.), and counting down the days until the end of the semester.

It's taken me longer than usual to get into the groove of the fall semester this year, probably because graduation seems closer than it ever has before. I've let myself get distracted with trips to prescott, work, and other little things and I've let a few reading assignments or "unnecessary" classes here and there slide.

But no more! It's time to crack down. In this feature I'm going to share a few of my own tips and strategies for how to stay on top of school (without letting it rule your life).

The single most important tip I can offer you is get a planner. One that has ample space for each day of the year from august to may. after the first couple days of the semester, gather all your syllabi and write down the reading assignments/homework assignments/due dates/test dates/etc for the entire semester for all your classes. For really important things like essay due dates or test days, highlight or put a star next to the assignment/test. This way, you'll never be wondering just what you have to do on any given day. All you have to do is open up your planner and it will all be written down for you. Also, it's really satisfying to cross off each thing as you complete it and to know that you have finished all your work for the day. Hell, you could even finish tomorrow's if you felt like it. But we're starting to talk crazy.

Now that you know exactly what you're supposed to do every day, try to actually do it on that day. There are plenty of weeks when I get caught up with various things and then find that I have 200 pages of reading to do for 3 different classes, 2 assignments, and a test to study for. That's way more to tackle than if I'd just done a little bit of work each day. Sometimes it's tough to convince yourself to do homework every day but it really is helpful.

So make the time that you do homework something that you might not exactly look forward to but can at least see as bearable. Choose a spot in your house or dorm or on campus that is comfortable and conducive to studying. This could be a specific nook in the library, a nice, secluded place outdoors, a comfy chair in your living room, or just your desk or your bed. The space should be free from distractions like traffic noise, other students, etc. If you like music while you study, play it. My freshman year in Portland, my favorite way to study was at my desk, with my feet on the heater under my window and a blanket over my legs (I'm always cold) and with my cupper's travel mug full of hot tea and a napkin full of cookies stolen from the bon. Mint tea+Chocolate Chip cookies= best thing ever, especially on a chilly, rainy portland day. This way, the activity itseld (studying) might not be all that enjoyable, but you can please the rest of your senses (music to listen to, something yummy to sip on/eat, cozy surroundings) to make the experience as a whole decent enough.

Planning on a day to day scale is very important, but planning for the big picture is just as if not more important. The first thing I did when I got to Lewis and Clark in 2009 was put together a 4 year plan. I figured out exactly which classes for my major/minor/gened I would need to take to graduate and arranged them in a schedule that made sense and left room for adjustments. The first thing I did when I got accepted to the media arts program at UofA was put together a 3 year plan. With each change I make- wether it's adding a minor, contemplating another major, etc I make a new 3 year plan to figure out how the classes I need to take will fit into my graduating on time. So many students go into college without really knowing what they're supposed to take to graduate on time... which is why the average student take 5-6 years to earn a bachelors degree. Since I've been planning since day one of my college career, it seems absurd that I would ever have to take more than 4 years to graduate- but that's because I took the time to figure out exactly what I'm going to have to do for all my remaining semesters.

Looking at the results when I googled "academic tips", I got a lot of the same old thing that you probably don't need to be told. "go to class prepared", "take thorough notes", "do the reading", you know. The thing is, I don't think the same tips are applicable to every class, and I think if you try to do the same things for every class you will end up wasting a lot of unnecessary time. During the first couple weeks of class, pay attention to your professors' teaching styles. Some may really expect you to remember important details from the reading, while others may assign the reading but then go over everything you need to know in class. Some may take attendance every day and expect you to take detailed notes, while others may post their lecture notes online and simply expect you to show up on test day and know the material. Obviously in a perfect world where we all have unlimited time and brain power we would do the same amount of work for all these classes just in the name of learning. But it's college, and we all know that college is part academia, part having fun, meeting people, experiencing new things, and exploring life as an adult. We have jobs and social lives and we certainly don't want to spend these four years with our noses in books the whole time. So adjust your learning/studying style depending on the teaching style of the class and the professor. If doing the reading does nothing more than tell you exactly what the teacher is going to say verbatim in class the next day, maybe just skim it. If the lecture notes are given online, don't worry about writing down everything word for word- just supplement the given notes with additional things the professor might say in class. This will save you a lot of time and effort without really compromising your gpa.

Those are my favorite tips, but here are a few more short ones:

-establish and look towards goals. Even if it's just getting through the semester or getting to graduation, know the steps you need to take to get there and feel accomplished as you take them.
- taking forever on a project or revising a paper a million times doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be better, and doing something all in one sitting doesn't mean it's going to be bad. Some of the best grades I've gotten were for essays I wrote in three or four hours the night before they were due. I went through the next morning and just made minor wording/grammar corrections before turning it in. Find a way of writing/doing assignments that works for you and don't let all those people tell you that you have to have at least three drafts or have to spend at least two weeks working on a paper for it to be good.
- Don't take it too seriously. Yeah, it's college, and it's your future, and it's expensive... but a few missed classes or assignments here or there are not going to matter in the long run. One failed test will not be the end of you. Just do your best not to let it happen again but don't freak out if it does. In the end it's the time you spent outside of class that you're really going to remember, not that one time you got a D on an essay.

What are your tips for staying organized and clear-headed in school? Interestingly enough my only class of the day today was cancelled so I'm going to do all that homework I put off last week ;)

<3
Em

30 Day Challenge- 28

Day 28 - Something that you miss.

I'm sad to say that I have the unfortunate but all-too-common problem of not appreciating things enough when they're happening and then missing all the best parts about them when they're gone. Even if the thing made me truly MISERABLE at the time, I seem to forget all the pain once the thing is gone and only remember all the great things it took with it.

In a way this is a good thing because it means my life seems so full of wonderful things when I think about it. But it's also probably a tad unhealthy... I should be concentrating on appreciating all these great things as they're happening, not after they're all gone! It's a goal of mine :)

Anyways, a lot of things about living in Portland really irritated me/ticked me off/made me generally upset and unwell. However, at the same time there were lots of things I LOVED about the place. I often tell stewie that when I graduate from UA I'd like to look into moving back to portland. I think having my own place (as opposed to sharing a dorm room), having a car, and having a real job would make the experience much nicer.

Some of the things I miss:
the gooorrrrgeous campus. UA is definitely pretty too, but in a different way. LC is just... indescribable in a way. I'd love to go back and visit, as I still see it as one of my schools.

the shows! I saw modest mouse for like 30 bucks. Vampire weekend for 25 maybe, Passion Pit for probably about 20, Regina Spektor for 30, and Yo La Tengo for free cause I won tickets from my friend while he was doing his segment on KLC radio. I miss it so much! Going to the crystal ballroom was always a fun treat. some of the best times ever, to be sure.

Voodoo donuts. It's almost cliche to say so, but seriously they are soooo gooood. I do not even like donuts. but I like voodoo. My faves are the raspberry romeo (with powdered sugar, not glazed), the mexican hot chocolate, and of course the voodoo doll. Their raspberry filling is to die for.

Stumptown Coffee. It's located inside the ace hotel lobby, and there's an awesome couch area that you can chill in while you drink your beverage of choice. It's a great place to go do homework on a sunday when you seriously have to get off campus.

I also miss rainy days, brisk walks at night through the campus, raspberry mochas from the dovecoat, films at the fox tower theater, shopping at Pioneer Place, riding the max train through the city just for the hell of it, sitting on the steps on pioneer square, the pretty lights on all the trees during the holidays, kettleman's bagels, saturday markets, river parties, sitting in the starbucks on piosquare while waiting for the pioexpress to come, taking long walks through the city without knowing where I'm going, getting lost in powell's books, and going to the ceramics lab on a saturday afternoon.

Portland is a great place! There were some crappy things about my situation while I was there, but I can't wait to come back! A lovely city with some truly lovely memories.

St Paddy's Countdown: Day 1 and Spring Break!

So... This is going to be a terribly sad and boring entry for the time being because I left my beloved camera/USB cord in Arizona... so, until I get it in the mail, Girl of a Thousand Faces will be tragically devoid of pictures. Still, I didn't want to get out of the swing of writing so after giving it a good 5 days to see if a temporary cord would magically turn up, I opted to just suck it up and write an entry anyways.

As you know, I was in Arizona for spring break. It was amazing! Spending lots of quality time with my family, boyfriend, and friends in the glorious sunshine with a car to drive and a kitchen to cook in- what more could I possibly want or need? Needless to say I did a LOT of cooking (and movie-watching, and lounging around, and sleeping... not blog writing though! S and I both lapsed into lovey-dovey too busy for the computer mode.) and got to try out a few new things. For instance, the colcannon I made with my Grandma's mashed potatoes- AMAZING. I'm both happy and disgruntled to say that the two casserole dishes I made of it (incredible how adding a head of cabbage makes a mashed potato recipe grow in size!) disappeared entirely before S and I had a chance to eat more than a couple servings of it.

Microwave Brownies

I said before that my "kitchen" consists of nothing more than a mini fridge and a microwave in a dorm room. This isn't entirely true- my residence hall has one small kitchen on the first floor that anyone can use. I've used it twice, and both times vowed never to use it again. The first time was the first weekend of the fall semester, when my roommate K and I made vegan ginger-molasses cookies. Many months passed before the second time I ventured back down there, which was this year's Superbowl Sunday. It wasn't to make vegan hot wings or pizza (although those are both awesome), but to make Smitten Kitchen's Homemade Oreos to send to my boyfriend S in Arizona for Valentine's Day. It was out of pure fondness for this hallmark holiday and adoration for S that I sucked it up and carried my heaping pile of ingredients, mixing bowl, and single cookie sheet down into that dingy kitchen for the afternoon. The experience could only be described as catastrophic.

Stocking a Vegan Kitchen

True, I am a mere dorm-residing college student, bound to a required meal plan and without much more than a mini-fridge and a microwave for a kitchen. The microwave doubles as a table for my printer, and the mini-fridge is usually stocked with fruit I "liberate" from the dining hall and really not a whole lot else. However, in my dream world I would have a big kitchen and it would be full of all the wonderful wholesome necessities of a vegan diet.

Luckily, the caterers for my school take vegan-ism into account, so I don't have to scrounge very hard to find decent things to eat. I still keep a few of my favorite things on hand though, for those times when I can't stomach another cube of poorly roasted tofu or slice of gelatinous berry pie. Following is a list of not only my favorites, but also pretty much everything else that is essential for a vegan or vegetarian kitchen- for all you who have to go grocery shopping on a regular basis.

Here We Go...

So! I've decided at long last to jump on this whole blog bandwagon thing before it gets so popular EVERYONE has one, and then fizzles out (ahem, myspace...). I've thought blogs are a pretty interesting new outlet for information and creativity for a while now, and being a communications major/art minor, I figure I should fit right in.