Friturday

Friday and Saturday have merged into Friturday in my mind. Overnight flights can do that to you.

The flight: Huge Boeing 777 and I was dead center in the back. yay...not. the guy on my left was an american businessman who only spoke enlgish but thought the flight attendants only spoke french. the guy on my right was a french businessman who only spoke french but thought the flight attendants only spoke english. they speak both of course so this provided some amusement. I was very cramped, but well entertained. they had these in flight entertainment system things in the back on the headrest in front of you and you could watch movies or tv or listen to music or play games even. I watched charlie and the chocolate factory, pocahontas, and an episode of Les Experts (CSI with french voice overs). did not really sleep though I did try.

Met up with Olesya at the airport and we grabbed a taxi to our hotel. the driver was very nice and showed us everything. cheap too. we split it so it was only 25 each. our room is TINY though. and our bath room is hysterically small. You have to open the door to brush your teeth. and you can't turn around in the shower. oh well.

This brings us to Day 1 in Paris. Went to the Eiffel Tower first of course. Gorgeous but very very very crowded. Lots of pictures. We didn't go up because the lines were worse than an amusement park. Then we went in search of lunch which was hard to find, but delicious. Pizza place. Les Invalides was cool. Didn't bother going in to see the tomb. Apparently we didn't miss much. The we went to the Arc de Triomphe. Very cool. Champs Elysees was also pretty sweet. Oh Champs Elysees...da da de da da...

Anyway, then we went to Notre Dame de Paris (soooooooooo impressive) and Saint Chapelle. Then we went back to the hotel and met up with the group. Duffy took us to Montparnesse and it was so awesome. Seriously great views of all of Paris. Definitely worth doing. After that we went to dinner (crepes). *whew* What a day!

Please feel free to read my next post: Funday.

Night at the Museum 2

Just got back from seeing night at the museum 2. overall pretty good. about on par with the first one. had a lot of clever stuff in it. good for the kids and the history buffs. (I sort of fall into both categories). enjoyable, especially if you've seen the first one. probably less so if you haven't. anyway pretty good. anyway, I'd give it a B. didn't see any good previews...

Some of My Best Ideas Really

So Blog Post Ideas 21-30 contains some of my best really and I just HAD to post my responses.

21: I'm fairly certain that I have always been partial to blues and greens.

22: I don't actually have any rainboots. Rather sad.

23: Ok, I'm sure there are like a gazillion really good pertinent questions you could ask to really super important people, but I can't think of anything that I'm just desperate to know so I'm skipping this one.

24: 2 dogs: an English Springer Spaniel named Coach (short for Coach Bobby Knight) who passed away at the age of 13, and a black lab named Calbert (short for Calbert Cheaney) who will be 8 this July. My dad's a big Indiana University basketball fan.

25: favorite class: Basketball Pep Band. even if our team did play like crap at the end of the season.

26: Calbert could easily have a BA in Supervising. He can follow anyone around and supervise them doing anything. He's especially good at supervising my dad on the weekends and my mom around dinnertime. He's such a good superviser he can do it with his eyes closed, which he does most of the time.

27: I'm probably Violet (the girl who ends up as a blueberry). Not sure why, but she seems to be a little more fitting than the others.

28: Absolutely! I love a good storm. Calbert however does not.

29: I've thought about this and I really think I would be in Slytherin. I know I know it's the evil one, but really not everyone who goes to slytherin ends up evil. Gryffondor is known for bravery; well we can knix that one right now. I'm just not nice enough to be in Hufflepuff; I can only be Suzy Sunshine for small, isolated periods of time. I'm smart enough for Ravenclaw, but I'm not the right kind of smart. I don't like studying, being in libraries, or doing extra class work. I would be bored in Ravenclaw. Slytherin is full of people who know what they want and how to get it. They're the "go-getters". They also have a tendancy to be snobs and have a certain disregard for rules. We have a winner.

30: I once tripped on the sidewalk while wearing roller blades and tore up both my knees. It was awful. I still have the scars.

Blog Post Ideas 21-30

21. What was your favorite color when you were little? Now?

22. What one item is your wardrobe lacking?

23. If you could ask anyone any question (just one), what/who would you ask?

24. How many pets has your family had and what were they?

25. What was your favorite class last semester?

26. If your pet had a major, what would it be? (like a BS in Napology)

27. Which Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character are you most like?

28. Are you a fan of thunderstorms?

29. Realistically, which Hogwarts House would you be in?

30. What is the most embarrasing injury you’ve ever gotten?

Blog Post Ideas 11-20

11. What were some of your favorite childhood board games?

12. What movie (if any) in theaters do you want to see?

13. If you could take any movie and watch it on IMAX, what would it be?

14. What are some of the best/funniest Apples-to-Apples match-ups you’ve had?

15. What is your pet’s name? What’s the story there?

16. Are you a beach or mountain person?

17. Why did you start a blog?

18. What was the last meal you had?

19. When was the last time you had milk and cookies?

20. What is your dream car?

Once again, I'd love to hear your responses, so if you decide to use one, leave me a link!

Jackie's Garden

Today my mom and I went to lowe's to get flowers for this one flowerbed in our backyard.

I have a thing about flowers. I don't like plants that are just green. I want things that have big fabulous flowers all over the place. I also like semi-unusual looking flowers, which tend to be annuals (one year only), whereas my mom only wants perennials (the kind that come back every year) for obvious reasons. So everytime I go to lowe's to help pick flowers, I end up going "ooh, look at that one! Let's get one of those!" or "hey those are cool! let's get them!" and the answer is always "but those are annuals". Phooey! BUT...I managed to find the only cool looking ones so those are what we got. So we're calling the flowerbed mine even though it's not my flowerbed, and I didn't buy the flowers. But I'm not complaining. So here's Jackie's Garden:

Back row: Foxy (a Foxglove), Yellow Yarrow, Apricot Yarrow, Herman (Heliot Coreopsis), Vince (the verbena) Middle Row: Chilean Avens, unidentified herb, Jenny (the Queen Victoria Lobelia) Bottom Row: the mini-rose, Flora (a flower we lost the tab for), John (a blanket flower), Betty (giant pink daisy), Joe (another blanket flower), and the daylily.

I just had to name some of them. I mean, who really wants to be called a Queen Victoria Lobelia?

Foxy is my favorite:

But I really like the pink daisy too:

When I go to the Zoo

You remember my blog-post-ideas blog post? Well I've decided to go ahead and write one of them out. Namely the "When you go to the zoo, what animals do you absolutely have to see?" (#7) idea. Grab your safari hats because here we go!

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I have not been to the zoo in a long time, but I have been to a lot of nice zoos. Among my favorites are the Indianapolis Zoo, which has a lovely polar bear exhibit (or at least it did the last time I was there), the St. Louis Zoo, and Zoo Atlanta, which has a very nice panda exhibit. Overall, the zoo is not among my absolute favorite places to go. It tends to be overcrowded, with lots of completely uncontrolled small screaming children, overpriced, and it smells bad. However, I love seeing the animals. They make it all worth it. Especially if you are at your leisure to see them as you please, and not hurried along by a teacher with a field trip schedule to stick to.

Tigers (and big cats in general) are a must-see for me. I love their powerful grace and austere beauty. Feeding time is optimal. Basically, they're my favs.

Elephants are the bomb too. You gotta respect the ears.

Pandas are just great. Zoo Atlanta is pretty special in that it has pandas at all, and we were super ridiculously lucky when last year one of the females had a baby. Very rare. The baby is called Mei Lan. Isn't she cute?

I have a strange fascination with the platypus, so if a zoo has them, I will go see them.

So that's what I would go see at the zoo. What are your must-see animals?

Blog Post Ideas: 1-10

So I was brainstorming random blog ideas (my posts can only be classified as random) and I came up with a whole bunch. So now I'm sharing them with you! Enjoy and please leave me a link if you decide to use one; I'd love to read your responses ;).

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1. Provide a running commentary on the sports event you are currently watching

2. What your dog/cat/fish is probably thinking about right now

3. If someone ran up to you and told you if you could answer a riddle correctly you’d get $100, but if you got it wrong you’d get punched three times, would you try to answer it or just walk away?

4. What you wore today and why (this is only good if there’s an intense inner monologue to go along with your outfit)

5. If you were going to die your hair a completely different color, what would it be?

6. What major cities in the US have you seen? Which ones would you go back to?

7. When you go to the zoo, what animals do you absolutely have to see before leaving?

8. What song are you listening to right now? Why do you like it?

9. What color are the walls of the room you are currently sitting in? How do they make you feel?

10. If you had to play hide and seek right now, where would you hide?

No topic

I haven't posted in FOREVER. terribly sorry about that, but I've been busy. Finals and all that jazz. But now I'm home! yay! so now what? I'm home until the 29th (chillin mostly) and then on the 29th I fly out. where to, you innocently ask?

FRANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yay! *does happy dance* Don't worry blog buddies I'll still be updating as often as I can (with pictures!) so you'll be able to keep up with all my adventures. feel free to do your own happy dance at this time.

...and now you're done. after that I'll be returning home for the remainder of the summer. so that's my summer plans. hope you guys had a fun cinco de mayo. (I didn't do anything; I had to study organic).

Cute Card From My Mom

Almost done with year 1!

No Such Thing as Surplus Cupcakes At College

So this morning I had my calc final (ehh) and then I had my theater final this afternoon. For those who are unaware I am one of nine lucky people in the most fabulously easy fine art/english credit classes at USC: From Page to Stage. My professor has a distinct dislike of grading things, and he really just gives everyone who participates an A anyway, so he decided it would be lovely to have a picnic for a final.

When we were all deciding who was going to bring what, I volunteered to provide cupcakes. I figured, it'll be easier to know how many to get, no one will need forks or anything, and everyone seemed in favor of the cupcakes. I will now admit a secret that I'm sure you will all hate me for: I don't actually like most cupcakes. Store bought icing tastes nasty to me (I really just can't eat it) and they get your fingers all sticky. I don't like store bought cake either, but you get the point. I knew I wasn't going to eat any of them.

As it turns out, almost everyone in the class feels the same way about cupcakes that I do. Only one cupcake got eaten at the picnic: the professor brought his wife and kids and Toby, the four-year-old son licked the icing off of one. So there I am with all these cupcakes to get rid of. I had given one to my advisor Dr. Morgan earlier in the day and one to my friend Amanda, because she had two finals today, and one to my roomie Sam. I had 14 cupcakes to get rid of, and I needed to do it soon because the blue icing was melting and the sprinkles weren't faring well either.

There is no such thing as surplus cupcakes in a college dorm during finals week. Two went to Shannon and some guy who was studying in her room (thanks!) and then I handed off three to Reggie who looked like he might hug me for giving them to him. Cameron, Ed, Morgan, and Andrea took another four off my hands. The last bunch went to a group of guys playing Halo in Stephen's room. Yes! I'm cupcake free! Sorry for anyone who didn't get one, they kinda flew out of my hands...

Time to take a nap at the desk of...

More End of the Year Thoughts

So I've been thinking about the past year and about decisions I made and if I would change them.

1.) Random roommate: I would totally not change this. Sam and I being roommates worked out perfectly (ok about 99.99% perfectly). We're very different people with different interests (tennis and photoshop versus marching band and watching CSI) but I think this is partly why it worked out so well. so I would do that again.

2.) Not lofting: again, I'm glad I did this. I do wish though that I had put my bed higher because it would have given me more storage space.

3.) Taking Science and Technology in World History: I loved that class. I like history, but I hate history classes. I feel like they're boring and they focus on details that don't matter in the long run. This was a great class though. I would totally take another histroy class with that professor (Dr. November for those who are interested).

4.) Taking From Page to Stage: I needed a fine art, and this was pretty much the only thing that would fit in my schedule, so I signed up for it. But even my advisor was kind of leary about me taking it. He was like, do you even know what the class is about? I dunno, something theater related I guess. It ended up being a 9 person class, only 3 of whom are theater majors, and the professor is the most laid back person ever. We don't really have grades, but it's very participation intensive. It was great. My final is on wednesday, so tomorrow I need to go get cupcakes from Publix. mmmmmm :)

5.) Green bedspread: I love my bedspread, but I wish it was heavier. Everytime I come back from home I really notice how light my bedspread here is.

Hm, ok that's all I can think of for now. Better, more exciting posts to come.

Thoughts as the Year Winds Down

We only have a week and a half left (well I do- my last final is at 2 on the last day) and I can't believe it. Where did the year go? I just can't get my head around it.

You remember in elementary school when your teacher starting taking down posters and bulletin boards and stuff two weeks before the end and suddenly your classroom, your whole school just didn't feel the same? It's like that around here too. All lofts have to be down before reading day so everybody's dismantling this weekend. Sam's went down a couple days ago and the room feels totally different.

I cleaned the junk out of my desk drawers and took the stuff off my bulletin board so it feels oddly empty. I need to start going through my binders and stuff soon too so packing will be easier.

Next weekend will be worse because the campus itself will start to empty out. Most of my friends have finals on the last day as well, so they'll be here but everything else will be pretty bare.

Anyhow, it's a beautiful day outside and I need to focus on calculus...

Happy Earth Day!

Taken by me at Moraine Lake, near Banff, Canada

Blustery Day

It's so windy!!! Hair in my face, pollen swirling, blustery day. Yuck. 

There really isn't much going on today. Going to go talk to my lab TA in a few minutes. She said I could come by today and get my grade since I couldn't go Friday. Tomorrow I get to go to a student panel interview of one of the three candidates for marching band director. Should be interesting. I wasn't thrilled by the last one so I'm hoping this guy is better. Then I have a scholar meeting. woohoo. 

French final on friday. maxcy banquet on sunday. french awards reception on monday. I think that's it but I feel like I'm forgetting something...

Oh well. That was really it. I don't have much to say today. I'll try to think of something cool and interesting for tomorrow. 

Jackie's How To Write a Perfect Thank You Note

We've all been there. You got the gift. You even liked the gift. You said thank-you in person. It is now the perfectly acceptable 2 days after the fact and you need to write the Thank You Note. It's hard, it really is. I always had a hard time when I was younger trying to figure out what to say besides the obvious "Thank you for the gift". But I've gotten oodles better at it and I thought I'd share my super simple How to Write a Perfect Thank You Note in just a few easy steps.

First start off with your heading. Dear whoever is fine in 99% of all cases. Then feel free to start off with Thank you so much for the ______.

Next, explain why you appreciate it. This is a good time for the This is exactly what I wanted line.

Tell how you plan to use it. This can be a lie. Telling Grandma you can't wait for everyone to see you in her hand-knitted sweater at school on Monday morning will not kill you. It might get you another sweater though.

Now add in a line about a future meeting/phone call/letter. This keeps the thank you note from sounding like a communication cut-off. It also makes it sound more like a heartfelt letter, versus a forced and hurried note.

Finally, thank them once again. The wrap up can be hard sometimes, but try to keep it ending on a word of thanks.

And that's it! Perfect every time!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go write a thank-you note....

Finished!

My fellow bookworms know the peace, relief, and sadness that comes with finishing a particularly excellent book. Today, just now, I completed The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.

Ken Follett is a best-selling author of suspense thrillers, and it surely came as a surprise to his publishers when he brought forth this novel about building a cathedral. However, this novel far outpasses his other works. It is historical, but not dry, it is detailed, but not weighed down, and it is long, but not slow.

The plot is an intricate tapestry of events spanning several decades. The reader follows a knotted path with twists and turns at every corner; Follett's narrative is never easy to put down. The characters are richly woven together with ornate, lifelike personalities. One cannot help but to cheer as their favorites win small victories, gnash their teeth as the villains come up with new schemes, sigh with pity when the misguided repent, and cheer when the truly evil are brought to justice. The medieval backdrop provides a setting so frought with danger, chivalry, greed, love, vengence, and hope that it lends itself so naturally to the tale as to seem undeniabley real.

The book captures you and commands your imagination. Once you've started it you will not be able to let it go.

In short, this book is a masterpiece which deserves to go on the top of your book list.

Some Spring Pictures

Isn't spring in the south lovely?

I'm On Google!

I'm on google! Yes! It is not exactly super duper easy to become searched by google; I had to work with it a bit to get it to crawl my page. But now when you search my name I'm #4 on the main page, and if you search Google Blogsearch for me, I'm THE FIRST entry that comes up. Sweet.

I'm also searchable by Yahoo, Ask.com, and WikiSearch. Woohoo!

So Many Things Have Been Left Unsaid

So for those of you who don't know, I volunteered at Scholar's Day this past weekend. I started out as just a student display for ALD (hence the tri-fold) but then my band director found out my topic was marching band and basketball pep band...let's just say it was highly recommended that I go as the band representative. Yikes! Nobody believed me when I tried to explain how much stuff I would have. That giant screen/poster/display thing behind me is HUGE and it was not nearly as easy to put together as the director said it would be...Some dad was milling around because he was early and he had to help me. It was a really fun day though, and I was wearing really cute heels (which hurt ALOT at the end of the day).

Other big news: I have my computer back! Yes! And best of all, I didn't lose anything. Nothing. Every document, every picture, every song, every program was right there waiting for me. It was like nothing had ever happened. I know, I'm currently holding the record for Luckiest Person Ever.

So that was yesterday. Oh and I got mail yesterday too. Isn't life great?