lack of sleep + naptimes + fun = week one

lots of stuff going on lately. this has felt like the LONGEST week ever. seriously. a week ago i was in the car on the way back to Rochester. the days instead of feeling 24 hours long have been about 48 each. good for packing lots of stuff in, i guess.

classes started back on monday morning. i switched out of the 8-10 am class on MW and moved it to TR and then added another 4 credit class on MW from 10-12 so i'm back up to 18 credits. shouldn't be too bad. Monday was super long. i have class from 10-12, went ice skating from 12-1, class from 1-2, 2-5, 6-8 and then small group from 8-10:30. tuesday i start at 8 am, so there isn't much hanging around time on monday nights. tuesday i have class and then work the rest of the day until 4. good homeworking and laundry days. wednesdays are the same as mondays minus the small group so that freed up a little more time.

then came thursday. woke up around 6am for an 8 am class. its a super far walk on the complete opposite side of campus so i have to leave around 7:30. apparently the professor cancelled class at 7:34 when i was on my way and i didnt find out until my friend texted me. oh well. ended up going into work at 7:55 a good 35 minutes before it actually opens. worked until 2 and then came back, watched glee and took a nap! yay naptimes

thursday night ash and i went over to our friends house. they live about 15 minutes away in chili, it was definitely nice to get off campus. i like changing things up a bit every once in a while. we all went to Wegmans to get pizza makings and then made dinner. during dinner we decided that we wanted to watch a movie so we went back out to Walmart and bought Elf! after the movie we just hung around and ended up watching planet earth. until 3 am. drove back home and ashley and i ended up staying awake until a little after 4.

did i mention that friday morning was open house and i had to wake up at 6? apparently i banked a lot of hours over thanksgiving break because this was no problem. after working from 7;30 until 11:30 we all went ice skating and explored the new campus building! its SO cool. the four of us went out to lunch at dibellas off campus before ash and i went grocery shopping. came back and took a NAP because let's just say the energy level after only 2 hours of sleep declines rapidly. after naptime we headed back over to hang out. we came fully prepared this time with rice krispie makings. after eating those a few other people came over and we played the worlds longest game of apples to apples... seriously 749 cards & 3.5 hours later... we finally finished. and then moved on to Jenga.

woke up this morning around 9:30 and did some nonsense before going out on a photoshoot around campus. needed 70 images... got 304. seems successful. did some art history homework and asl. watched the proposal.

tomorrow i'm taking pictures all day for a project (from 10 am until 4:30 pm) and then at 5 we have an admissions meeting. after that i'm going over to my friends for a little for homework shenanigans.

busy busy busy. 12 days until winter break. that seems ridiculous.

everything but....

...homework.

no classes yesterday, no work, no ice skating. and pretty much everyone and their brother went home for the weekend. so what did i do? nothing. just kidding that's only half true. i got some of my to-do list done. and went to IV. but every once in a while i just really need a day off. i realized that i had a paper due at midnight (realized this around 11:25) good thing i'm ahead of the game and had finished writing it a week ago. good thinking.

woke up at 6:30 this morning and got out of bed after only 15 minutes of snooze buttons. worked from 7:45-12:30 doing various things. made grilled cheese and carrots for lunch. well i didn't make the carrots but you know what i mean. washed them at least. now i need to take 2 tests for political science and write the paper due tuesday. that one i dont have written already but i finished the outline so yay.

i've decided to minor in art history. thoughts? i'm not sure. too indecisive for this declaring business.

hmm, what could i do instead of homework now? the possibilities are endless. i enjoy playing music and singing out loud. this activity is best when no one else around. also, good thinking. got some good stuff on my itunes, its fantastic. there will be no concerts anytime soon.

five weeks until this quarter is over. i've been here for eight already. this seems like a long time. what have i done? not sure. i should probably figure that out.

i just realized i'm still wearing my name tag. seeing as there is no one else around i think it's safe to take it off. i wonder if people even read all of this? maybe. maybe not. hi mom. i figured you'd make it this far ;)

oh yeah, it snowed two days ago. not enough to warrant a blog post but still. winter's here. it's like 32 degrees on a regular basis now.

it feels like fall

today is friday. five days from my last post.

this blogging thing doesn't seem to be working so well this year. i was so good about it but somehow this year there is always something better to do. i think it might have something to do with the fact that i hardly spend anytime on the computer anymore-- shocking, i know. other than working on projects i dont spend too much time on it. yay me. actually i haven't really spent all that much time in our apartment lately either.

speaking of which, i'm leaving in 5 minutes.

i worked 28 hours last week, on top of classes, club meetings, hanging out and homework. i don't exactly know how that's possible but i fit it all in. and i get to bed at a semi reasonable hour.

went to pittsford today with ash. and grocery shopping. all we ever buy is soy milk, vg splash, cheese and apples. i mean food stuff too, but these are the most used. we had to do some pantry re-organization to fit it in.

tomorrow is admissions open house at 7:30 am. study session from 11-1 then a hockey game. club team, not the d1 one. im going to iv tonight 7-9 then a hockey game from 9- who knows when. lots of stuff to do tomorrow on the hw front.

more later. plus pictures.

its 57 degrees today.

rice for breakfast

holy monkeys batman it's nice outside today.

62 degrees. clear blue sky with no clouds. can't get much better than this.

the slight cold feeling is only hinting towards one thing.. more SNOW. i'm not sure how i feel about this at the moment, i could go for a good 5 months of fall weather. apples, pumpkins, squash, etc.

worked for a 6 hours on admissions stuff yesterday. IV last night then some homework and hanging out. watched a bit of V for Vendetta. slept in. went grocery shopping. read some for political science and now i'm hanging out on a rather ugly yellow (technically goldenrod) couch in the library (idea factory) to work on a project. tonight looks like homework and hanging out. sensing a pattern? i have a lot of that stuff.

i can't believe there are only 3 weeks until brick city homecoming and monday is the beginning of week THREE. how in the world did that happen?? craziness i tell you. it's going to be midterms before i know it. uhoh, have some papers & studying to do before that.

next weekend is a dinner party friday, open house (7-9 am) on saturday, study group (11-1pm) then mini golfing? we'll see how that goes.

we've got this grocery shopping thing down to a science. it doesn't take very long and it appears to be getting cheaper and cheaper as the weeks go on. i've found my new favorite breakfast food....rice with cinnamon and a little bit of sugar and soy milk. soo tasty. i have more food pictures to share at a later date.

home again, home again

i'm home home home...

and unpacking only to be packing up and leaving again in 13 days. i have to say that i'm a total nerd and i'm really looking forward to classes starting. like i said earlier, i've already started reading some of the books... i can't help it! 

the housing situation currently remains up in the air. we'll see how that goes, i believe dad sent out an email to housing today.

as for last week ... it was college and careers part two. we had the first two days in july and then this time around it was an entirely new set of people... plus about 300 more than last time. exhausting beyond belief but so much fun. the weekend basically involved the same as last time, directing people, leading packs of families around campus, sitting on the student panel and answering questions, fooling around, etc. mom and sarah came up on friday to go to syracuse for a college visit saturday morning. they actually were able to sit in on the last half of the student panel i was on. we left rochester around four.. after mom got stung by a bee =( sarah drove the entire way home... with one stop at jone's cones of course. made it home by 10:30 on saturday night and then i slept in until noon on sunday... guess i was just a tad exhausted. not only did we work from 8 am until 11:30 pm on friday but all of the ambassadors got together on friday night until around 2 am. then woke up at 6 on saturday to work until 4 pm. longgg day. i worked a total of 60.5 hours last week i think. crazy. 

haven't really done much today. slept in until 9:30 or so. unpacked a bit. packed up fall clothes and all of my art supplies. sarah gets home from drivers ed in about an hour so maybe she'll entertain me. 

silk, laundry & master locks

long busy day

monday frenzy

today was kind of ridiculously unordinary.

woke up bright and early at 8am, made it to work well before anyone else showed up so i took it upon myself to reset the room (they had cleaned the carpets over the weekend so everything was on the tables). i turned on all of the computers only to find them unnecessarily sluggish, oh yeah and the main IBM computer system was down. someone called the ITS desk with no luck. our big project is based entirely around this system so it was no good. we managed to entertain ourselves. around 9:30 or so, the fire alarm went off. evacuated, waited outside and proceeded to come back in. after 5 minutes inside someone told us that we weren't supposed to be inside yet so we walked back outside and around the building to figure out what the heck was going on. except no one was outside so we went back in. 10 minutes later, fire alarm number 2 went off, only this time an information session had started with, oh, about 30 families. quick change of plans, all of the ambassadors that were outside walked around and answered some questions and then they had us take out a tour group. except, i was not supposed to be giving a tour today so i was wearing flip flops. epic fail. i now have lots of blisters and 5 band-aids on my feet. the tour was actually really good, it was small and people were asking questions which was nice. came back from the tour, folded some mail, and then took a quick lunch break. the afternoon was fairly normal except they didn't get the system working until 3 which is only an hour and a half before we leave.

after work i walked from the admissions building over to park point to hopefully get some of my textbooks for next year. except they didn't have all of them so i'm going to have to order the rest from amazon or get them from barnes & noble later this week. oh well, i'm actually looking forward to my graphic novel class... despite needed 7 different books for it, it should be interesting. 

anyway, i should go get some dinner before the corner store closes. i need to decide what i want to eat first though. this is telling me "autosave failed." go figure, just adding more complications... hopefully it works!

nope... fail.... what is going on today? 

another turning point, fork stuck in the road

work, work, work. 

good thing it's fun! 

today was busy yet not at the same time. woke up, talked to housing (argh), went to work, inputted, ate lunch at crossroads-- not by myself for the first time (yay!), wandered around campus with another admissions friend taking pictures, unsorted folders and played text twist. came back and ate blueberries & yogurt for dinner (sound familiar?) then ozzy came over well actually we ended up at his apt until i got sleepy and wandered back here. took care of some emailing business and now i'm ready for BED! (hooray!)

today was rather fantastic. for no reason in particular. just a lot of good things piled into one. 

another turning point, a fork stuck in the road

time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go

so make the best of this test, and don't ask why

it's not a question but a lesson learned in time

it's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.

i hope you had the time of your life

tornados

i decided against naptime yesterday to avoid getting completely off schedule. not to mention that there was a tornado watch and a fast moving thunderstorm so it was maybe best to stay alert. came back from work, grabbed a peach and bagel for dinner, watched some gilmore girls, talked to some people on the floor, and wandered about. 

we've been having some really weird weather lately, lots of really bad thunderstorms, tons of pouring rain, and weird 

anyway, on to college and careers the main topic of the weekend. it was busy, busy, busy. 

friday morning all of the admissions ambassadors & staff had breakfast together, we played some ice breakers ( there are a lot of new faces in the office). after that we started setting up the field house for check in. check in consisted of rebecca and i sitting under a large metal sundial until it started thunder storming and we realized that we were in quite possibly in the worst place to be. more moving boxes, directing traffic, etc. we all headed to dinner in gracie's. we had a student panel which was basically a bunch of us sitting on stage answering questions. that night there were a bunch of activities in the field house where we were supervising. emalee and i hung out around the photobooth mostly. i did get a tattoo-- pictures of that later. 

saturday morning i woke up around 6 and we all met at gracie's around 7 for breakfast. the morning included directing people down the quarter mile and handing a microphone around during a Q&A session. lunch time again at gracie's. wandered around more with ali, helped answer some questions and then it was time for yet another student panel. check out was around 3 so we just stood around and answered more questions. 

all in all a good, long weekend. one more college & careers in august. 

(all of the pictures were taken or scanned in by Amanda)

twelve hours

last night i enjoyed twelve hours of wonderful sleep. you might be wondering how i can accomplish this task while still waking up at 7 am... well going to bed at 7 pm before the sun even has a chance to set helps this immensely. 

today is day one of college & careers. i finished showering and getting ready and now i'm just eating some crackers and peanut butter before heading over to work. we've got a full day ahead of us. if yesterday was any indication there will be lots of running about. i was absolutely exhausted after work yesterday, hence the early bedtime. anyway this morning we're setting up, i have a meeting at 10, helping with check in, i'm giving a tour, directing people, moving boxes, answering questions, sitting on a student panel, helping with evening activites and moving more boxes. we should be done by 11:30 or so. tomorrow morning is even earlier, we're meeting at 7 am to get ready for yet more tours, box/people moving, etc. luckily tomorrow night will not be quite as late. 

anyway, off to brush my teeth! i probably won't post tonight because i'll be SLEEPING. 

a scone-less st. patty's day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!

hope you remembered to wear green so you didn't get pinched :) 

in honor of this day, i'll use entirely green writing. i hope that's not a problem. it's ridiculously warm out today-- it got up to 60 i believe. amanda and i were walking from philosophy to drawing around 2 pm and just grinning from ear to ear. we never realized how wonderful warm sunny weather is, i think the winter makes you appreciate it so much more. i even saw some flowers sprouting today! of course, i did spend most of my time in windowless classrooms but my walk to and from them was so nice! unfortunately they are calling for snow on thursday, we'll see. hopefully not, i think i could get used to this nice weather. 

as for this weekend, i'm headed down to DC for an accepted students panel at a hotel in bethesda i think? i was asked a month or two ago if i'd join two counselors as well as two other ambassadors to go down and speak to a group of accepted students. i don't remember if i talked about this in my blog before or not. but it's something that i went to last march when i was still deciding on a school. it gives people a chance to hear about college life directly from us without even coming to campus. we're driving down at 12:30 on Friday (after class 9-12) and then driving back saturday night. originally i was planning on just going home for saturday night through monday night but with current ticket prices and my homework load i dont think that i'm going to make it home at all :\ i'm kind of bummed, but it'll only be 10 more weeks and then i'll be home for the summer. i just have a giant drawing (30 by 40 inches) due on Tuesday as well as a few other projects and it's kind of hard to travel with those. I think it'll be easier on all ends to just skip it. i really wish i could though! :( basically i'm missing BOTH hockey games and seeing family this weekend. bummmerrr. oh well, that's life. gotta make choices sometimes. 

rain means worms

spring quarter is off to a ridiculously good start. of course, it is day one at 3:30 pm and i've only had 1 hour of class and 4 hours of work so far. but regardless. work was a good four hours of stuffing envelopes which --no joke-- is my favorite thing to do there ever. met a new admissions ambassador who, as it turns out, is dating the starting goalie of the hockey team so i got to talk about hockey for two hours with someone who doesn't think i'm insane! 

it's good to be back and see everyone. the tunnels were full last night of people meeting up for the first time since break. got settled back in, did a load of laundry, got some dinner stuffs. our dorm room feels surprisingly bigger than usual which is odd because ashley and i were sleeping in the basement which is ginormous. i guess that is a good thing though.

despite the weather button on my dashboard saying that it's 34 degrees, it feels really warm out and all i needed today was a fleece jacket. it is disgustingly smooshy outside though from all of the rain. 

just waiting for ashley to get out of class now so we can go buy books for this quarter. the only homework tonight is to read 2 chapters in the psych book! 

Monday of Doom

6:35 Wake up & hit snooze.
6:45 Wake up & get ready.
7:20 Walk to Beanz to meet Amanda and Francesca for coffee!
7:45 Walk to class.
8:00 Design Survey.
9:00 3d, build chair.
10:20 Leave 3d briefly, get duct tape from room, stop at bank, talk to mom on the walk back.
10:40 More 3d, continue chair building.
11:55 Walk back to dorm.
12:15 Get lunch at Gracie's with Ashley... and more coffee!
12:45 Gather art stuffs for next class, read blogs for work, check email.
1:30 Walk to next class, stop in professors office for paper.
2:00 Class (2d), work on color aid project
4:27 Run over to work (got to leave class 20 minutes early, yay!)
4:30 Eat chinese food & listen to directions for chat power.
5:00 Begin calling tons of accepted students to congratulate them.
7:15 Wrap up calling and walk back to dorm.
7:30 Begin drawing.
12:21 Quit drawing.


Yeah, I really like to pack it all in there ;) Tomorrow is looking like more of the same with the addition of two volleyball games & a movie night. Yay coffee!

Don't get me wrong, this is not a complaint. I just felt like I was constantly moving today so I wanted to see what all I did!

Time for bed, goodnight all!

Blog Blog Blog

So, I've got this nifty job at admissions which not only allows me to fold hundreds of letters and input millions of names but I get to blog!! 

As of tonight, I've officially started blogging on it. Don't worry, this blog will not die off. The admissions blog is for incoming students to get a taste of college life and ease the waiting process for decisions to come out. This blog will be for, well... everything else. Occasionally I'll blog the same entry on both (sorry! spare time does not come in an abundance around here) 

I've got to wake up in less than 4 hours for my flight so, for tonight, I'll just post the blog on both as well as the link to the RIT admissions site. <--- click the word link.

Once upon a time in a land far, far away when I was much younger and had more free time on my hands….

Oh wait, that was last year… It’s almost mind-boggling thinking back to this time last year when I was sitting at my little desk at home pushing the refresh button on my trusty laptop just hoping for a reply from any college. I remember visiting schools wondering if I would fit in or ifthe program was “just right” for me. I remember waiting until almost the last minute (like literally 5 minutes before the server crashed…) to submit an application online because I was convinced that I’d screw up my name or something really silly like that.

Well guys, I managed to spell my name right, pass a few classes and guess what?! I got into college! I even managed to survive the wait for the decisions to come out. When it came down to it all, I think I actually had it relatively easy. I got into all of the places I wanted and when I took a second look at them I realized that RIT was the only school I was really in love with (of course, I did my fair share of pro/con lists beforehand). But, RIT won by a landslide.

The college application process can be closely related to getting a shot at the doctor’s office. While the sheer thought of both events is overwhelming and intimidating at first, the actually duration of either is short in comparison to most other things in life. As a bonus, once they’re over you either get to attend a really awesome college/university OR get a supercool band-aid! Okay, that was a really lame comparison..

Don’t get me wrong though, the application is slightly harder than getting a shot. But still, you’re basically just “interviewing” colleges to find the right fit foryou. Ask questions, explore your choices, talk to people but ultimately the decision comes down to you. [Note: Pro/Con lists and lots and lots of patience are key in the application process.]

So, here I am, a second quarter freshman (if there is such a term?). I’ve been working in admissions now for about two months, give or take a few weeks. I spent my first quarter getting to know the campus becoming adjusted to my newly acquired college life-style. Nowthat I’ve managed to figure out a schedule that allows me to get a full eight hours of sleep a night while still finishing homework and going to class, I’ve decided to start branching out and try something new.

This blog’s purpose is basically to give YOU a first-hand account of life at here at RIT. Like most things in life, it has its definite ups and downs and we’re all here to show you a little bit about life beyond the glossy covered booklets. Sure, those give you a good look at the major aspects of college life, there are some things like finding out when the best time to do laundry is or figuring out how to class while spending the least amount of time outside as possible that you need to find out directly from the source. Cold weather and all, RIT is a pretty awesome place to be spending four years. Of course, that’s my opinion so make sure to check out allof the other bloggers if you haven’t already

And don’t worry, the wait will be over before you know it!

Trick or Treat!

From the number of costumes on campus, you would think you just walked into an elementary school parade. Only at RIT will you see people going all out building robot costumes with working lights. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to bring my camera to class but maybe i'll get some pictures later tonight. Zach did run up and down the halls last week dressed as a tiger...



Guess who is officially working for admissions?? Had the interview yesterday (which I mentioned in my last post) and I got an email around 4:30 saying that I got the job! I'm going in on Monday to sign all of the paperwork and what not and I'll probably be starting for real on Tuesday. Basically the job will entail office work, sorting papers and what not, giving tours and hopefully blogging!

Somedays All I Do Is Watch the Sky

Snow, Snow, Snow! It has officially snowed in Rochester. No accumulation yet, but there were some definite flurries yesterday from about 3 am until 6 pm-- very pretty. Looking at the forecast, I think it has decided that it is not quite time for a heavy dump-- although a few hours north of us there was between 6 and 12 inches...

Anyway, let's see what's new... I don't think this week has been overly excited.. just a lot more of the usual homework, class, sleep, homework but that's not always a bad thing. This week has been oddly short, I can't believe that tomorrow is Friday! Next week is week ten-- the last week of the quarter. Let's just say I almost need my toes in order to count the number of things that I need to get done..

Wednesday morning Ashley and I got up around 9:30 and went to the SAU to make hundreds of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I got an email through habitat for humanity a while back that asked for volunteers so I decided to sign up for it. It was run by Hillel ( Jewish Community) and Foodlink. They had hundreds of boxes of bread, peanut butter and jelly and we got our nifty paper hats on and got to work spreading peanut butter. Channel 12 News from Rochester showed up and actually filmed us so we were on the news sometime.. but I never got a chance to see it. I talked with someone from Foodlink about what they do etc and she suggested that if I was interested to volunteer at their warehouse sometime.. so, I came home yesterday and emailed a guy at Foodlink and I'm going to be going in to volunteer on November 8th! Foodlink is not a soup kitchen or whatever you wanna call it.. it's a food distribution center which means they go to places like Wegmans and ask for food donations and then distribute that food out to local soup kitchens. That way there is one person, rather than 12 going to Wegmans for donations.

This morning I woke up bright and early at 6:30 am... haven't seen that hour on the front side of my day in a while. I had a 9 am job interview with admissions this morning so I got all bundled up in my coat and headed over there. Unlike most interviews, it was a group one so there were 4 people interviewing 5 applicants.. interesting. We're supposed to hear back either tonight or tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. If I do get the job, it would mean that I could blog for RIT that all of the perspective students read... I think that'd be pretty awesome because I blog already anyway =)

Well, I can't really promise to update much for the next week or so... but the last class of the quarter is on November 7th, so I'll have tons of time then!

As long as you're here... take a look at the survey question at the top right of the page... you can click to vote! I just picked this question because it seemed appropriate for the time of year but I will be putting other ones up eventually.. just thought I'd point it out!