Go girl, seek happy nights to happy days- William Shakespeare

This week has been one of the most insane weeks, academically, of my life. I only have a few hours of sleep for the entire stretch of the week thus far, but it’s finally over. Hallelujah. I had four tests in three days, the least of these tests counting a whopping 25% of my grade. I feel fairly confident about most of them, but I had to give up my no caffeine streak to get me through. Tonight I have initiation for all the new pledges. This year, I am getting littles (Greek form of little sisters). Once they are officially inducted into Alpha Delta Kappa, which of course MUST consist of some cheesy candlelight/potential cry fest  (didn’t you know it’s mandatory to make at least one person cry when you put 50 girls together at any given time?) , the girls will have their big sisters revealed to them. We (the returning members) have bought pairs of socks that will be given to our littles, and at the end of the night, the returners will put on the pair of socks that they bought, and we’re all going to cover up with a big sheet. With only our socks sticking out, the littles will have to pair themselves up with the matching socks of the returning girls. Once everyone is matched up, the sheet is removed, and the girls will then know who their big sister is. Everyone together now.. “awwwww”. Okay. This weekend, I’m going to Austin to celebrate my birthday with Clint. Since the actual weekend of my birthday is busy, we’re celebrating early, and, being one of those people who gets overly excited for their birthday for no reason, I’m so ecstatic. That’s something nice about having a boy; you always know that any holiday or birthday will be fun.  So in other news, the office that I work in is moving right now to a sister campus of ours, and I just finished boxing up more student files than you can imagine into color coordinated boxes. I will continue to be a secretary here, doing the same work as normal, just with almost all the adults in the office gone and working in Frisco. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how my office functions with just the college workers left behind.  And is anyone sad that summer’s warmth is leaving, or am I the only freak around here that enjoys Texas heat? Because everyone around here is gleefully pulling out there sweaters and boots in the typical dramatics of Texans that believe that 80 degrees constitutes wearing their north face coats. I am not excluded from this bunch, but at least I don’t like it. Welppp, I’m glad to see that I’m getting so many views. I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend! I’ll be thinking about you all while I’m on fall break next week

Also! There are some sandals that I saw someone where that I have been lusting over, and I looked them up online, and to my dismay they were about $250 too expensive. This last weekend, fashion fate stepped in and I found the exact shoes I wanted at Buffalo Exchange (a glorified vintage resale shop) for.. drum roll please.. $30. Brand new Tory Burch sandals for 30 smackers. Please forgive me for the bootleg ghetto picture from some purse website, its the only real picture I could find of them. They are the same shoe, but not as elevated off the ground. Ah, so beautiful.

 
thank you for reading. XO!

never wouddda thought

I have accomplished the impossible. I have only had one caffienated drink in almost 3 weeks. That is all.

catch 13

The last few days have been full of lessons for me. I’m a big believer that if I write something down, it becomes more real for me, and a visual motivator to conquer something. So here we go, as you join me in my mental unloading.

1. If you pretend that you don’t have problems, then you will never actually get to a point where you don’t have them.

2. The amount of time you have been a Christian does not give you “seniority rights” to be able to sin more, but only more responsibility to show young Christians what a mature walk should look like.

3. Everyone is striving to be someone else, but if we just used that energy to be the best at OURSELVES, we could be more than we ever could have been as the shadow of someone else.

4. Being a true friend means not consulting your calendar when a problem with someone you love comes up.

5. You have to search your heart for your true intentions often enough that the things that come out of your mouth are always genuine.

6. Try to look at something that inspires you every day.

 7. One of the biggest hindrances in your own happiness is comparing.

8. The minute you say “I will never be like..”, you do.

9. I will never be able to make myself believe that I could be a tree hugger, no matter how many visits I make to Whole Foods instead of Albertsons.

10. Really listen when people are talking to you. There is no greater service you could for them.

11. You can not base yourself on your past accomplishments. No body cares how fast you ran sprints in highschool.. you have to always be working on something that defines you today.

12. Giving up caffeine is one of the most painful things you can do to yourself. And in the end, the most wonderful. But what I still wouldn’t give for an ice cold Coke Zero.

I site these lessons from everyone from colleagues to speakers to people who didn’t even know they taught me something… which brings me to my last lesson..

13. Your very life is a lesson for anyone who looks at it. Walk as a teacher of good.

remember to tip the piano man

I’m about to go to bed, but I thought I’d write a late night update while I’m finishing off my hot green tea. (I have been dubbed the ‘granny’ of the house because of my recent hot tea drinking habits). Tonight was so wonderful. I went with some of my closest friends for one of my room mate’s boyfriend’s birthday. We went to adorable pizza place in the Bishop Arts District, full of character and life. I had never been over in that area before, but the whole place has a very artsy, vintage feel. The inside was extremely cozy, and we enjoyed big pizzas on the second floor while being serenaded by the live piano player. We kept tipping him to take our song requests, in which he would gladly take the cash, wink, and smoothly say “thank you darling” on the mic-a reaction that kept us scrounging our wallets for more tip money.  We all sang songs, laughed, and took plenty of pictures. At the end of the night, we enjoyed a sundae that was of top chef stature. We later found out that it was rated Dallas’s best dessert.. and rightfully so. We departed with the guys, and headed home, happy and full.

And, to top off this surprisingly good Tuesday, I woke up to breakfast in bed that my room mate made for me. Warm, whole grain blue-berry muffins, frozen grapes, and juice. ahhhhh. I’m so thankful for my sweet, thoughtful, beautiful friends. I really am.

Annddd a few pictures from this weekend. I went to ATX and saw those Longhorns whoop some Wyoming heiny.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.  ~C.S. Lewis

day 2.

Recently, I have recognized how dependent I am on caffeine. I’ve always recognized my constant desire to have a big gulp in my hand, but since college started, it has become a drug that effects more than just keeping my eyes open for study sessions. Last year, I was continually pulling all nighters to study for tests and finish homework, my caffeine consumption spiking up to almost a 12 pack a day. I know. I’m disgusted even writing that down. Since then, I can not make it more than a few hours without getting a fix of some sort without physically feeling the symptoms of my withdraws. So, after doing much research on what all this coffee and coke is doing to my body (not to mention how terrible the fake sweetners are), I decided it was time to get my life back in control. It is day 2 of my caffeine diet, and I have had a terrible headache since about 3 hours after my last sip of coffee. Ugh. But I’m working toward a healthy me. If anything, this is exactly why I will never ever try real drugs. I can’t even handle a diet coke.

personal theology disguised as a study break

In the midst of studying, I felt the need to write. I have been studying alot of theories lately- mostly that related to early philosophers such as Thales, Socrates, Plato, Heraclitus [to name a few]. I find it marvelously intriguing the way that man has searched for the meaning of life through the ages. Through the study of these characters that have formed the way that society has viewed morale, I realize that man’s search is so timeless. With each new character to analyze, I find myself also questioning these things- what IS the meaning of life? IS everything around us “real”? And what can you even say IS real when everything is constantly changing?  Socratic method only leaves me, along with any other man with a thirst for something deeper, in a pit of questions; only to resort to realizing you really know nothing at all. It also makes me inquire whether this questioning is something religious or simply man’s innate need to know whether the chicken or the egg came first. This post is not much more than a dog chasing it’s own tail, but all I can think is that the only thing that man can  hope for in life is to create one’s own perception of what is “real”, and hope that the reality that we build around ourselves  is pleasant enough for us to be able to be who we truely are, and be okay with that at the end of the day.

pictures from rush week

Here’s some pictures from this last week. (mostly because my mother will want these, and thought I’d go head and share them everyone)

The second picture is the aftermath of the burning smore stick being stuck into my foot.

Side note; I find it fairly humorous how classes have been getting cancelled across campus because of the rain. We are all within a 5 minute walking radius of any given class (not to mention that we have shuttles) and we still have class cancellations. There’s Texas for ya. For me, I stomped through all the puddles I could in my cheetah rainboots.

just some sorority whoorah.

Rush week has finally come to a close. Don’t get me wrong, that week, though hectic, was one of the most fun, bonding weeks I’ve ever had. But it’s nice to be able to sleep again. We got over 30 new little rushies, and I love them. The week consisted of different set ups to resemble different cities with our theme “ADK in the city”. We had Dallas, Paris, New York, and Balliwood: all of which took weeks of work to construct. The last event was bid day, which is where all the girls who rushed-almost 200- line up and wait to hear what sorority they got an invitation from. After the cheers or (regretfully) tears, we  loaded up the vans took all the new rushies to Dallas to go out to eat. It was quite the sight to turn around and see a troop over 50 alpha delt girls trying to cross the street all together. That night, we headed to Camp Copis and stayed up all night making smores (although I didn’t eat any, I was branded by my friend’s smoldering wire hanger that she was roasting in the fire sin marsh mellow, and then stabbed into my foot at the climax of a story she was telling), telling funny stories from our past (which somehow always came back to our best, worst, or most embarrassing kiss), and just giggling for hours as you could only expect 50 girls hyped on monster to do. After hitting the sack around 4:45, we were woken up at 6 to watch the sunrise, wrapped in our blankets, and hear a devotional. We drove home, hung over from our sugar high, and all got coffee and donuts. The rest of the weekend was devoted to hanging  out with Clinton and my family. Thank goodness for Labor Day! It was so nice to have that extra little break. I took Clint to a precious little coffee shop that I adore called Crooked Tree. It’s inside of an old Victorian home, and when you walk in, you immediately feel at home. Your beverage is put into your mug of choice that you get to select of an extensive collection and, if you’re feeling extra creative, you can put a hand knitted “mug sweater” on it. We both opted for some hot mint tea while filling out scholarship applications and knocking out accounting homework. We also explored some of Dallas for some shopping and ice cream (unfortunately two of our favorite past-times). Two of me and Clint’s close friends just got engaged this last weekend, and already have the date and place picked out, which has put a small fire under our butts. Anything related to our wedding has been very stressful for me, but I guess that’s what you have to deal with when you find the one you want to be with at an earlier age than most.  Just like models in magazines are fake, but still make you feel like a cow, I have realized that wedding magazines are just as fake, and will plant something unrealistic in your head that you shouldn’t strive to own up to, unless you have a trust fund back east. So I’m chunkin the Martha Stewart wedding magazines. I’ll probably be posting different ideas I have for an economical wedding. And maybe with 50 alpha delts, I’ll be able to use my resources. I have been really thinking about trying to get a mentor. I have mentored many girls who are younger than me, and the natural older sister in me comes out, and I find a passion in leading and helping, but I think I have really reached a time in my life where I need to be mentored myself. Please be praying for that. And please pray for all of the new girls in Alpha Delta Kappa; that they may find their place in this school, and that this organization will help find the leader and potential in themselves, as it has for me.

” A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ ont he walls of his cell.” -C.S. Lewis