twinkly lights & snow plows

i think i got a combined total of about 2 hours of sleep last night. between it taking me a million hours to fall asleep, waking up every 30 minutes for no apparent reason and the snow plow outside our window which thought that 3 am was an appropriate time to slam around and make loud noises for an extended period of time.

last night my plane was delayed by 35 minutes or so which ended up working out just fine. the plane ride was seriously cool. nighttime + blizzarding snow + city lights = seriously cool. not to mention my ipod was dead so i listened to the soundtrack from star trek for the entire hour on the inflight radio. the coolest part was flying over rochester and seeing all of the streets with the plows going up and down. ash picked me up at the airport and i spent the rest of the night unpacking and catching up.

despite all of that nonsense last night, i was up and ready for class with a good hour to spare. already finished deaf lit, next is survey of western art, typography and photo then small group & homework. busy first day back. ashley and i decided on the walk over to class that our time would be much better spent if we turned around, got back in pjs and watched movies and played in the snow all day. luckily we have some common sense so we kept walking to class.

the world keeps spinning on

Gone, like yeterday is gone,
Like history is gone,
The world keeps spinning on,
Your going going gone,
Like summer winter break is gone,
Like saturday is gone

[Switchfoot -- Gone]

Last day of winter break. Am I ready to wake up at 8 am tomorrow and have a million hours of class? Nope, not quite at all. But it always manages to pull together last minute. Flight at 9 something pm tonight, getting in around 10:30. Then grocery shopping and unpacking and homework pulling together and catching up. Regular week; classes and work, hockey game at the end.

It's currently 25 degrees in MD and 10 in Rochester with snow as far as the eye can see. Oops, just kidding apparently it's going to be sunny and 15 degrees on Friday.

This blog everyday of the new year thing might end today because tomorrow classes are from 10 am until 8 pm with small group from 8-10pm. We'll see, no promises though.

sneak peek at my photo project numero three.

15 days?!

i can't believe that it's already been that long since i last posted. good thing i already hit my quota for the year some time ago.

christmas was excellent. lots of family. lots of cookies. and TONS of card games (old maid, hearts, euchre, trash, etc). i'll have to dig up some pictures eventually. i tend to stop blogging when i come home because let's face it.. a good chunk of my daily readers are right here with me! ;) as for now, i've got some homework and admissions stuff to get working on. school seems pretty far away, it's a wonder i even remembered what homework i have.

sarah's getting her wisdom chompers out tomorrow morning so it looks like we'll be watching movies and making smoothies (ha! that kind of rhymes) for the next few days. no big plans for new years.

heading back to school on sunday night (late flight around 9 but tons cheaper than the earlier one) still have some friends to catch up with. things to do, people to see, sims lives to mess up (the sims is a computer game in case you didn't catch that).

check out [this] to read a cool hockey story

and [this] to see pictures of our 23 inches of snow!!

adventures

Life has been rather eventful lately (both good and bad). So much so that this blog post has been postponed a few days.

Last Thursday Rochester, like much of the rest of the country, got slammed with snow and wintery weather. It wasn't so much deep snow drifts but the ice that was created on top of the snow. Walking to class on Thursday proved to be quite the challenge... involving not one but two times when I totally wiped out. Luckily the first time no one was around to experience my awkward tumble as it was 7:30 in the morning. The second however was in a more populated space in the middle of the day. I felt a little better when I found out that I was not the only person this happened to. Both times were not particularly bad falls although my leg is still sore days later, but they did make me feel a little nervous for my tour Thursday afternoon! Which ended up going just fine and I didn't fall once walking backwards.. go figure! It was kind of fun to give a tour in the snow, it adds a level of excitement and I got to take some back routes to avoid the outdoors. Hopefully my tour group wasn't too cold!

Life event number two... Thursday after classes I was hanging around working on homework or something of the sort when all of a sudden the fire alarm goes off. Now ordinarily, not a problem. However, as mentioned above, it was snowing bucketloads and also about 25 degrees out so I was slightly less than excited to be standing outside. I had the sense to first put on sweatpants, a winter coat and grab a blanket before heading outdoors. Public Safety came after some time to figure out the problem (no actual fire or anything as far as I know). After about 45 minutes of cold we were allowed back in except the catch was the fire alarm had not yet been disabled so we stuffed a bunch of hats and sweatshirts on to mask the noise. Ironically when it finally turned off an hour and a half later I didn't even realize it because I had become so accustom to the obnoxious noise.

Moving on, Friday morning my roommate and I decided it would be a good idea to go out to lunch and do some Christmas shopping because we had some extra time on our hands. Ashley wanted to stop by Tim Horton's for a quick cup of coffee. That quickly turned into an hour and a half cup of coffee when we realized that she had left the keys in the ignition and the car was locked. Not to worry, my handy internet searching phone found us a locksmith and we were soon on our way.

Last night was the only RIT hockey game in the WHOLE month of December. I've been rather hockey deprived lately and I've had to resort to watching tons of NHL games. Anyway, after a long winning streak, the Tigers lost to Niagara. Our shots on goal were nearly double but their goalie was on all night and their shots looked a little stronger. Definitely a good game, just wished the Tigers could have pulled out another win! Now we'll have to wait until January for another game.

And the final event was our christmas party today! Last night after the hockey game we got back and immediately set to work decorating our entire apartment with those old school paper chains and snowflakes! It looked very festive along with all of our holiday lights and live christmas tree. This morning we woke up and got to work baking lots and lots of cookies! Chocolate chip, cranberry white chocolate, peanut butter with hershey kisses, and puppy chow. A bunch of people came over for dinner and a movie. We had spaghetti (minus the syrup) all inspired by Buddy the Elf, which was of course the movie choice of tonight.










All in all, a pretty decent weekend. The nice thing about these three weeks is that while there is still work to do, there is a good amount of time for hanging out before we all leave for the holidays. The good thing about blogging is that no matter how unfortunate the situation, the first thing I think about is what a good post it would make :)

winter snow advisory

Houston, we have snow.

and we're not talking about any puny-melt-in-one-hour kind of snow. REAL powdery white stuff that just so happens to be falling in a HORIZONTAL fashion.

of course, it had to pick the one day of the week when i have an 8 am class on the complete opposite side of campus AND i'm giving a tour for a special group today.

looks like today would be a good day to bust out the 'ol winter coat.

it also looks like we're supposed to get around an inch an hour until tonight which means that if i stand in one place for too long i could potentially be buried. note to self, move quickly.

it might help if i could see WHERE the roads are as the plows are seemingly useless.

oh the weather outside is frightful

[Post from my RIT Blog this morning]

For some reason the weather this year has just not been the same. Last year the snow started coming down around early November and let up around March or April (I could totally be making that up that ending date I honestly don't remember). This year it's December 9th and we're just now getting snow. We've had a few fake flakes here in then but nothing substantial. Even now its only a few inches. It is however incredibly windy right now.

Why am I bringing this up? Because normally I would be in class not still sitting at home in my pj's and watching it from the comfort of my own bed (all while listening to Christmas music)! I was supposed to have a class at 10 am this morning which was all fine and dandy but I woke up to roll over and check my phone and got an email saying it was cancelled. Now, this is not exactly the time I need a break, but extra sleep is welcomed whenever I can get it because I've been lacking in that category lately. 13 days ago I was home and in just under 9 more days I will be back home for winter break. This is probably RITs most awkward quarter. Fall quarter works out quite well, we're here for the entire time, parent's weekend is in the middle for a little relief and then we're back at it until Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving we come back and have the first 3 weeks of winter quarter followed by a full 18 days of break time then 8 more weeks of classes and finals. Thanksgiving break is fantastic because there is no homework attached so it's a full week of freedom. Winter quarter, while you'll have work the amount depends on what classes you're taking. So far, mine doesn't look like it will be that bad. This is also an awesome time to catch up (if you've managed to get behind already during the 3 weeks) or get ahead for the remaining weeks. It works out great for some of my classes that have 3 tests (1 before and 2 after break) and for my design classes which involve projects or photoshoots. The weirdest thing going on right now is the length of some of these days. I feel like last week was the longest week of my life! Not necessarily a bad thing, it's just totally throwing off my sense of time. Looking back, I sure packed a lot into that first week which might have been part of the problem (or solution?).

Anyway, time to actually consider doing something today! I have some design projects that I'm working on already. I've also heard that the snow is rather hard so that sounds good for some snowman building!! Next post I promise to talk about my classes, as I'm taking some rather unique ones this quarter.

=====

edit/additions:: it's no longer snowing :( or windy for that matter. my 1 pm class is still on. and university of wisconsin cancelled all classes because it snowed 17 inches. SO JEALOUS. i want the snow, ill still go to class.

SNOW

IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!!!

I ran around outside in a t-shirt. It was fantastic.

Now back to our regular scheduled programming...

schedule

Winter Quarter 2009

http://schedule.csh.rit.edu/?s=4tFzbCF

Spring Quarter 2010

http://schedule.csh.rit.edu/?s=RcH0c6C

and clearly, i decided to minor in communications. after much discussion and confusion.

but then again, that could all change come tomorrow ;)

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.

all good things come to an end

just got back to rochester from a weeklong spring break at home! ashley was able to come home with me too so I got to show her all of the exciting things to see in maryland and dc. ironically the day we flew home from rochester was the beginning of the biggest snowstorm maryland has had in three years (only 6 inches of snow) but still funny-- or annoying. eventually it warmed up and we were able to have 75 degree weather today!! too bad when we landed in rochester today it was 38 degrees, foggy and rainy. oh well. 

this week included: two separate trips to chipotle, a Caps game at the verizon center with Amanda!, a day full of wandering around DC, a second trip to DC with dad, seeing jimmy (Alison's new adorable dog), visiting with Barb, Joe and Eric this weekend, mini golf and batting cages yesterday, Sarah's volleyball tournament this morning and other various fun things. 

verizon center

the white house

jimmy, alison's dog :)

mini golfing

tomorrow is the first day of spring quarter which means... new classes! i actually only have one class tomorrow so it shouldn't be too bad. class 9-12, work 12-4. 

FIFTY ONE DEGREES!

I'd like to take the time to point out that it is currently 4 degrees warmer here in Rochester than it is in Clarksville. IT'S FIFTY-ONE DEGREES!!! Do you know how freaking exciting that is? Ashley and I woke up, opened our window and then decided to go frolick around campus in our PJs... with NO WINTER COAT. The only unfortunate thing is that when 12 foot piles of snow melt it produces a ridiculously large amount of puddling and mooshy muddy yuckiness.

Last night was excellently fun. After work we went to the Rail Jam to watch people snowboard down the piles of snow which was actually cooler than expected. Wandered back and met up with Francesca and Amanda for dinner at Gracie's before the HOCKEY GAME. The first period was seriously the most exciting thing ever... Tigers were up 3 2. They scored two of the goals about 15 seconds apart, it was crazy. Much to the disappointment of the fans, coaches and entire team, the Tigers lost 4 6 to Sacred Heart *big sad face*. It broke their 11 game winning streak and they've dropped to second in the AHA, one point below Air Force.

Today sets the record for the latest that I've ever slept in while in college... 1 pm! I guess going to bed at 3 last night made me tired super tired :) I was a good kid last week though and finished all of my homework on Thursday night that was due Monday!!!

Anyway, time to finish getting ready and such before going to another hockey tailgate and then the game! Movie night later tonight, perhaps? Last night we headed over to the guys floor again and watched Happy Gilmore.

Chai Snow Melt-age

I love snow
the end.

(ashley on giant 10+ foot snowpile)

Got back to Rochester yesterday afternoon after all the shenanigans noted in the post below. I realized wayyy to late that I could have just taken the blade out of the knife... oh well. Too late. Got back and unpacked everything. Went to the corner store with Ashley to get some dinner! (hummus, pita and cheese sticks! mmmm) We were looking for something fun to do --other than homework-- and noticed the large snow pile outside so we piled on everything we could and went outside looking like marshmallows. Rochester has a ridiculous amount of snow right now, it snowed 46 inches last month and it's pretty much been under 32 degrees so there is little melt-age. The snow piles were so huge that when I walk my leg would sink in up to my waist. To add on to the excitement, the pile extends the entire length of the parking lot and it is extremely good for tunnel making. Although, it's not so terrific for snowman building. We are supposed to be getting a giant blizzard tomorrow though so perhaps that snow will be good in that department.

Woke up super early for class this morning. Since I got ready so fast (literally in like 10 minutes or less...) I decided that I needed some coffee so I walked down to Beanz. Amanda and her roommate happened to be there already so we waited --forever-- for them to open up the darn coffeeshop and I finally got a chai latte! Which I am currently in love with and I wish that I had a giant tub of that stuff right now. Just got back from Design Survey and 3d. Design survey was ridiculous as always and we just had a critique in 3d so that was a good start for an early Monday morning. I'm just waiting for Ashley to get back now so that we can go get some lunch! Class again at 2 and then I can go play in the snow piles again!! I mean... uh.... do some homework!

Pancakes, Friends and Homework

Okay, another week please? 

Just kidding. Sure, it'd be nice to have another entire week full of fun and frivolity but like all good things, there is an end. I think a two week break is a perfect amount of time, it's enough time to disengage from busy life and relax. Of course, RIT has the added bonus of being in the middle of a quarter so yep, you guessed it... homework! How enjoyable. I guess it could be worse. I could have exams the week after break (like Harvard) or have a 10 page paper due (if i wasn't an art major). But, I'm not at Harvard and I'm an art major so, I draw! And draw and draw and draw and glue. 

These past two days have been friend-packed... if there is such a term. Thursday night I went over to Corey's house with Jenni and we watched some movies and had "girl time"-- something not found often on RIT's 70-30 guy to girl ratio campus. Had pancakes for breakfast made by mom... yummm! And sausage made by dad.. but I'll let Sarah tell you how that was :) After breakfast went over to Liz's house to hang out. Came back to do some homework-- okay, so I did watch an episode of the OC before doing so. And in a little while Alison is coming over to hang out and do some puzzles. 

Tomorrow is the last full day of winter break which means Sunday I make the trek from 40 degree Clarksville to snowy Rochester. As noted by my mom has gotten a record snowfall this December.. 46 inches. Luckily most of that has fallen since I've been home so I'm not sick of snow yet. But ask me again in March and we'll see if that changes. 

I guess that perhaps I should stop avoiding the inevitable and get back to work. 

On the First Day of Christmas

What the Twelve Days of Christmas Really Cost

Skeeter on the Move

It seems as though there is never a minute of downtime anymore. 

(alpaca at the downtown market)

Thursday worked from 8:30 until 1:45, had class from 2-5, went out to dinner and class with Ashley until 8. After that came back and did homework and watched Grey's Anatomy before bed. 

Friday morning I had a meeting at 9 am, worked from 9:30 until 3pm, another meeting until 4, did some homework, went out to dinner at the Sportszone, hockey game until 9:30 then we went to a comedy night at the Ritz to watch Drake do stand up comedy until 12:30 (he won! and is going on to the finals in January). 

Saturday morning worked from 10 until 2pm, did some homework, got a quick dinner, went to another hockey game until 9:30, watched a movie until we fell asleep. 

(sleigh rides with santa)

Woke up this morning and drove downtown to see the Holiday Market in Rochester, grabbed some coffee and bagels from a Dunkin Doughnuts downtown except we felt kind of uncomfortable in that sketchy part of town so we drove to the mall to eat our breakfast/lunch. Walked around the mall and did some Christmas shopping and now we're back here! Ashley's taking a nap while I work on a little bit of homework and then I think we're making a gingerbread house in the lounge before dinner and more homework. We also have some floor holiday shenanigans at 9:30 tonight. 

It just never ends! Good thing it's all fun. I still have a few projects to finish/start on tonight before classes from 8 until 5 tomorrow. This week doesn't look too bad, we have a holiday luncheon thing for work on Wednesday that I'm probably going to. I think Ashley and I are doing some birthday/christmas something or other on Wednesday night. Working most of the day Thursday, two classes and then I get to fly home super early Friday morning!!! 

Speaking of nothing... You know you're used to cold weather when you walk outside in just a sweatshirt and remark about how warm it feels... when it's 38 degrees outside! haha Ashley and I agreed that today felt like summer, we didn't even need winter coats! 

Say Something

Busy, busy, busy. That pretty much sums up my life lately. I'm finally not sick anymore! Yay. We just made it through week 5 which means there are only 4 weeks left until finals... what a weird thought?! I'm currently working on a giant 30 by 40 inch self-portrait of my face, writing a paper on the democratic plan for the environment, working on a 2d project, making apples out of everyday objects for 3d and trying to have a life in there somewhere. 

No really, I've been pretty good about setting aside certain time for homework and then making sure that i'm getting out too. It definitely helps that my floor is awesome so I can just walk right outside my room and find a ton of people to hang out with. Funny thing is that the other night when Ash and I were hanging out with a bunch of people we looked around and realized they were all deaf. It never occurred to me that the majority of my friends now are hard of hearing or completely deaf. I think it's kind of awesome, really. I've been picking up a lot more sign and I can actually hold an entire conversation without really awkward pauses. My finger spelling is still pretty slow but eh, that'll improve with time. 

greg and ash

drake dancing like always

he wanted me to teach him to draw so i said "here draw tigger" 

then he got frustrated so i just drew tigger... 

i got bored and drew on a bunch of people's whiteboards

Wednesday Drake, Ashley and I went to the girls volleyball game. Thursday after classes I met up with Ashley, Drake, Andrew and a couple of other people to see 21 at Ingle Aud. RIT has this thing Friday night after classes, I went to dinner with Ash and Drake (at Gracie's of course...). We came back to the dorms and ended up running around our floor until nearly 4 am. We did make an attempt to go out to Ritchie's, a free game room in the tunnels but the couches smelled really bad so we just came back here. Saturday morning we woke up around noon and then went out shopping. Ashley needed some ink for her printers and a couple of other things and I needed to pick up some board from Home Depot and some rag paper and more charcoal for my art project. It's super nice and super convenient that I have a roommate with a car :) Today looks like it's going to be very homework filled. I can't remember if there is anything else that needed to get done today. The huge, creepy drawing of my face needs to get done as well as the paper for writing. Since my parents are coming next weekend (well, thursday..) I'm trying to get as much done now as I can. 

We're going to be signing up for classes for winter quarter here in a few weeks (Oct 22nd). I met with my academic advisor the other day to go over which classes i'm going to be taking...  

Monday

8-10:50am ASL 1

2:00-4:50am 2d Design

Tuesday 

9:00-11:50am 3d design

12:00-1:00pm FYE

2:00-4:50pm drawing

Wednesday

8:00-10:00am ASL 1

2:00-4:50pm 2d Design

6:00-7:50pm Design Survey

Thursday 

9:00-11:50am 3d Design

2:00-4:50pm drawing

Friday

10:00-11:50am Vector Imaging 

So it'll be about the same course load as this quarter except slightly more challenging. We'll see how that goes, I'm taking the maximum number of credits they allow you to take without getting special permission. I've decided to "minor" or "concentrate" in american sign language. I'm still going to pick another thing to minor in but I'll probably wait to declare that until sophomore year. 

Maybe i'll see if I can get Ash out of bed now so we can go get some brunch :)