So today was day 1 of the Adventures of Stephanie and Devon, Spring Break '09. Not that it feels all that much like spring, but hey, a little rain won't stop us from having fun. We've got cameras and country music, we're good to go. currently we're watching a very quality movie called "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days". Fabulous!! I'm a discredit to the fairer sex when I admit that this is my first time seeing this movie. I am greatly enjoying it though. How could anyone dislike a movie where the very premise is a woman playing games with a man? Granted he's playing games with her too, but what's the fun in playing games if you're playing alone? It's only really fun if they fight back.
Back to the trip...Steph and I left College Park shortly before 2pm this afternoon. According to GoogleMaps, our trip to my counsins' house on Lake Gaston in North Carolina was expected to take a little over 4 hours. Add in Richmond traffic, and we were probably looking at closer to 5ish hours. The end result? 7 hours. GAH!!! It took us over three hours to get from College Park to Fredricksburg, VA, a journey that's usually 2ish hours (1.5 with the way I drive >_>). We averaged about 12 miles an hour for most of that part of the trip. Thank God for music and "Would You Rather". Once we finally made it to Fredricksburtg, we stopped for gas then drove around for 15 minutes trying to access the WalMart we'd seen from the road. As luck would have it, due to one way streets and no u-turn intersections, it took us rather a bit to finally make our way to WalMart. Once there we bought drinks and snacks for the road. We had chips in the car but wanted someting a bit more substantial since we were not going to arrive in Lake Gaston by dinner as originally planned.
Of course no road trip adventure would be complete without getting lost trying to get back to the highway. Have I mentioned I fail at city driving? Long story short, I got confused (oh so shocking) coming out of the parking lot and got lost for a bit, but thanks to some friendly cashiers at a CVS we were able to make our way back to the highway. The benefit of our little detour was that by this time, most of the traffic had thinned out, and we were able to go somewhere around the speed limit for the rest of the trip. Steph fell asleep for a bit, but I eventually had to wake her up once we got to the border of VA and NC so she could navigate for me.
The rest of the trip was fairly easy, except I discovered that my driver's side windshield wiper is not clearing properly, and is conveniently leaving a not so clear splotch right in my line of vision. Joyous. I mentioned it to my Uncle and he said he'll take a look at it tomorrow (or later today by this point, seeing as it's after 3am). Spent the evening chilling out watching TV and chit chatting with everyone since we've been here, very relaxing. We'll stay here for most of tomorrow/today and head down to Calabash, NC to crash with my super awesome grandparents for a few days.
Okay, sleep now as I'm very tired and my battery is dying on my laptop. I'll charge my baby overnite then write more as our adventures progress. We're making a video diary of our trip, so many pictures and videos to come, both here and on facebook.
Quote for the day: "If WalMart was a person, I think I'd marry it. I'd call it Wally!" ~Steph
Peace y'all.
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: When stopping at a store in a strange city, remember how to get out of the shopping are and back to the main road. Woohoo for Devon being directionally challenged.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Perspective
I'm realizing I've been getting caught up in petty things lately. Everyone tells me how I'm so mature for getting over the breakup so quickly, and that's good I guess. To truly care about someone is to let them go, without knowing if they'll ever come back. To truly care about another person is to want what's best for them more than your personal ideal situation. That's what's made this easy for me. My greatest desire is for him to be ok and happy with his life. Am I over the breakup? Yes. Am I over him? Just about.
I have so much for which to be grateful. God has blessed me beyond anything I could have ever deserved or wanted, starting with Christ's sacrifice on my behalf. Think about it: God gave up his only son. He gave up the person He loved most to save people who had no regard for Him. That really is love. I could never do that. I could never be so unselfish as to sacrifice the people I love most to help someone who didn't care about me, with no guarantee that my sacrifice would move any sort of response to them. That's just...wow. Beyond comprehension.
I've been complaining about school so much lately. I need to take a step back and realize school is a privelege, not a right or something to be expected.
Some things I can be thankful for: My parents are paying for me to go to a great school. I have an amazing family, some of the most wonderfullest awesomest friends anyone could ask for. My life is relatively drama free, I'm healthy, my family is healthy, we live comfortably despite the tough economic crap. I really am spoiled, and lived a semi charmed life. So my classes are boring and easy. All the more reason to do well! I have the freedom to worship my saviour wherever and whenever I please without fear of persecution. Billy and I are still friends, and the breakup was not ugly or drama or forcing anyone to pick sides. I have everything I need for life without having to do hardly anything for it. I never have to worry about where my next meal is coming from, or if I'll be waking up tomorrow, or if I'll have clothes to wear.
So many people have so much less, and are still making the best of their lives without complaining all the time. I knew two girls in high school who lost their mothers to cancer. They were both two of the sweetest girls I ever knew, and I never heard either of them complain. I met a friend of a friend the other day, and he seemed like a chill kid. He seemed content with his life, and happy to be who he was. He's a cool kid. I was reading his blog earlier tonight, and discovered that this seemingly happy go lucky kid has experienced some of the worst things life can throw at you, and is on the verge of another tragedy. It amazed and inspired me so much. You'd think anyone who'd had such a sucky life would be jaded and bitter, but this guy is exactly the opposite. His situation reminds me yet again of how much I've been given in life and how much I've been blessed.
Thank you, my new friend, for your example. You are an inspiration and an example. You are in my prayers every day. I am praying that God sends his angels to comfort you and give you strength. Many hugs!!
Peace y'all.
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: When traveling to an unfamiliar destination, plan extra time to account for getting lost and trying to figure out how to get there.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Unity is Coming!!
I'm super excited!! Echo and Intervarsity are finally starting to hang together!! This is what I've been hoping for since I got here!! There is so much disconnect among the various Christian groups on campus, and this semester it looks like we're finally starting to form some cohesion. Echo, now called OneU, isn't doing much this semester so their leadership has been encouraging us to just keep finding other Christians to hang with. On Wednesdays during free hour, we have United Prayer, which is where all the Christian groups on campus meet to pray with one another. It's led by a different organization every week, such as Intervarsity, OneU, Korean Campus Ministry, etc. This is new this semester, but seems to be going a long way towards bringing the various groups together. After all, we're all one in Christ, so why should we all be our own little cliques on campus? How are we supposed to spread Christ's love all broken up and disconnected? So I'm quite excited and can't wait to see what the future holds for this :)
Off to play Apples to Apples!
Peace Y'all.
Off to play Apples to Apples!
Peace Y'all.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
School is Boring
So it's only the 4th week of school and I'm already bored with my classes, and school in general. Maybe I'm just having an apathetic week but it just all seems so blah. I'm only taking 4 classes, so while it's manageable, it's not nearly enough to keep me all that busy. I only have to do homework 3 nights a week to keep up, and that's with multitasking. If I were doing homework and nothing else, I would probably only need 2 nights. My classes are all easy, and the homework is essentially busy work. Thus the issue.
I'm the type of person where if I'm not being challenged, I get bored...really quickly. If something doesn't challenge me, and doesn't keep my interest, I have little to no motivation to actually do it. Example: my spanish class. It's a retake, becuase I got so bored with the busy work last semester that I didn't do half of it. The problem was that said busy work was 35% of our grade and not doing it led to a bad grade, despite getting A's on my tests.
I like my classes, it's just a matter of them being able to challenge me enough. Breakdown:
>>Poli 360: Comparative Political Thought/Theory. The material we read outside of class is interesting, and I enjoy reading it. The professor simply restates the reading in class in simpler terms and his lecture style leaves me fighting to stay awake....at 130 in the afternoon. His tangents about his life are more interesting than his lectures. We have to write a 2 page paper every week based on the readings, then later in the week we're given a classmate's paper to critique. BORING! 2 pages?! I thought this was a 300 level class! This reminds me of high school...and considering my high school wasn't exactly the epitome of academic challenge that's pretty bad.
>>Span 301: Advanced Intermediate Spanish. Again, ridiculously easy for a 300 level class. Maybe it's just me and the ability God's given me to be stupidly good at Spanish, but as previously stated, all the homework is busy work. Answer a few BS questions based on some simple readings. Do some grammar exercises practicing stuff we learned in Spanish 1. The one good point is that the prof only speaks Spanish in class, and makes us do the same. Not that this is hard for me, but it's something that should start being enforced at the 201 level. If we're taking a language beyond the level required for university credit, we obviously want to use it somehow in our future, and we have to learn how to speak it, not just understand it.
>>Econ 102: Introduction to Macroeconomics. Your standard lecture class with the occasional online quiz and problem set thrown in. Reeeealllly simple, and most of it's common sense. Granted that's to be expected since it's a 100 level class. The prof isn't horribly interesting, but not boring either. He likes to relate everything back to Milky Way bars. Take notes, plan my week, make occasional sarcastic comments to my friends Cynthia and Stan who are in the class with me.
>>History 303: The Second World War. My favourite class by far. Dr. Laurie is god of the History department. Definitely one of the best, if not the best prof I've taken here. His lectures are entertaining and educational at the same time. His exams are challenging but not overly difficult if you've payed attention in class. Doing the readings isn't necessary but it's helpful. His papers are not overly long, generally 3-5 pages, but you have to write well for them and you have to actually do the work behind them, which is usually reading a whole bunch of stuff on a topic of your choice related to the class. My only issue with this class is that we don't have much to do outside of it reguarly. I look forward to the class; it's the highlight of my tuesdays and thursdays.
So there's my little rant for the week. Not to worry, I'm still doing my hw and keeping up with my classes, they're just annoying. It's troublesome to me when I have to actually try to find motivation to do school. Well seeing as it's going on 4am I should probably do that thing they call sleeping. Not that it matters since I don't have to wake up before 11 any day of the week. Gotta love that! I'm looking forward to the weekend (which essentially starts tomorrow at 7pm). Hopefully it'll snap me out of the apathetic fog I've been in this week.
Peace y'all.
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson: Always have a couple rolls of toilet paper stocked in your room, so when your dorm (or campus in general as it would appear) FAILS AT LIFE BY RUNNING OUT OF TOILET PAPER you're not stuck using tissues. Reasons we love UMBC...
I'm the type of person where if I'm not being challenged, I get bored...really quickly. If something doesn't challenge me, and doesn't keep my interest, I have little to no motivation to actually do it. Example: my spanish class. It's a retake, becuase I got so bored with the busy work last semester that I didn't do half of it. The problem was that said busy work was 35% of our grade and not doing it led to a bad grade, despite getting A's on my tests.
I like my classes, it's just a matter of them being able to challenge me enough. Breakdown:
>>Poli 360: Comparative Political Thought/Theory. The material we read outside of class is interesting, and I enjoy reading it. The professor simply restates the reading in class in simpler terms and his lecture style leaves me fighting to stay awake....at 130 in the afternoon. His tangents about his life are more interesting than his lectures. We have to write a 2 page paper every week based on the readings, then later in the week we're given a classmate's paper to critique. BORING! 2 pages?! I thought this was a 300 level class! This reminds me of high school...and considering my high school wasn't exactly the epitome of academic challenge that's pretty bad.
>>Span 301: Advanced Intermediate Spanish. Again, ridiculously easy for a 300 level class. Maybe it's just me and the ability God's given me to be stupidly good at Spanish, but as previously stated, all the homework is busy work. Answer a few BS questions based on some simple readings. Do some grammar exercises practicing stuff we learned in Spanish 1. The one good point is that the prof only speaks Spanish in class, and makes us do the same. Not that this is hard for me, but it's something that should start being enforced at the 201 level. If we're taking a language beyond the level required for university credit, we obviously want to use it somehow in our future, and we have to learn how to speak it, not just understand it.
>>Econ 102: Introduction to Macroeconomics. Your standard lecture class with the occasional online quiz and problem set thrown in. Reeeealllly simple, and most of it's common sense. Granted that's to be expected since it's a 100 level class. The prof isn't horribly interesting, but not boring either. He likes to relate everything back to Milky Way bars. Take notes, plan my week, make occasional sarcastic comments to my friends Cynthia and Stan who are in the class with me.
>>History 303: The Second World War. My favourite class by far. Dr. Laurie is god of the History department. Definitely one of the best, if not the best prof I've taken here. His lectures are entertaining and educational at the same time. His exams are challenging but not overly difficult if you've payed attention in class. Doing the readings isn't necessary but it's helpful. His papers are not overly long, generally 3-5 pages, but you have to write well for them and you have to actually do the work behind them, which is usually reading a whole bunch of stuff on a topic of your choice related to the class. My only issue with this class is that we don't have much to do outside of it reguarly. I look forward to the class; it's the highlight of my tuesdays and thursdays.
So there's my little rant for the week. Not to worry, I'm still doing my hw and keeping up with my classes, they're just annoying. It's troublesome to me when I have to actually try to find motivation to do school. Well seeing as it's going on 4am I should probably do that thing they call sleeping. Not that it matters since I don't have to wake up before 11 any day of the week. Gotta love that! I'm looking forward to the weekend (which essentially starts tomorrow at 7pm). Hopefully it'll snap me out of the apathetic fog I've been in this week.
Peace y'all.
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson: Always have a couple rolls of toilet paper stocked in your room, so when your dorm (or campus in general as it would appear) FAILS AT LIFE BY RUNNING OUT OF TOILET PAPER you're not stuck using tissues. Reasons we love UMBC...
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Busy Busy
For only having four classes, I've been decently busy over these first few weeks of school. Thankfully it's manageable and nothing terribly difficult. I'm supposed to be writing up my critique of a classmate's paper from Poli 360, and Billy would scold me if he knew I was getting distracted yet again but I finished all the grammar stuff and muddling my way through the horrific phraseology of the paper. I don't understand how whoever wrote it (we all have numbers instead of names, I guess to promote more objective critiques?) can butcher their phrasing and grammar so much. The only excuse is if they are one of the students who doesn't speak English as a first language. Otherwise, I have to wonder how in the world they passed 8th grade English. Not trying to sound overly judgemental here, but these people seriously need to learn how to write academically. Starting sentences with "But" or "And"...not cool. Using two "but" clauses in the same sentence...really folks? It's not that difficult. You don't have to be an amazing writer, just write with some sense and clarity! Also, when the prof says 2 pages, he means TWO PAGES! Not 3, not 2.5, but 2. ugh. at least it gets me something to rant on in the critique.
On a related note, I got a text book at the UMBC bookstore for a reasonable price...shocking! $26 for my Poli text book, which was the only reason I actually bought it from here versus online or sharing Alethea's. Spanish book was close around $100...yeah not buying that one. Hooray for the library, same with History, cuz Heaven knows we don't actually read all 14 books. Since we can't do the papers on any of them it makes more sense to just get them from the library as theyre needed.
Speaking of the library, I'm still kinda ticked they turned the 7th floor study lounge into a computer lab, but in all fairness, it has been helpful. I went over to the library to print out a paper today, and I was amazed at technology. The paper was saved to my flash drive, and as I look at it, I'm amazed at how I can type something up on my computer, put a little stick in the side of my computer, and with a few clicks, my 2 page paper is now on this little tiny rectangular thingydo. It's pretty nifty, and extremely convenient. What's not convenient is that I had to walk to the library to print said paper, because of course my printer is STILL on the fritz...gotta get that checked out this weekend. I don't go to a nerd school for nothing, so time to find one of my tech savvy friends and get them to fix it. Also need to make a trip to walmart this weekend and buy ink, seeing as the ink I need is of course the ONE KIND THE BOOKSTORE DOESN'T SELL. gaaaahhhh.
So now that I've sorted out some thoughts, time to get back to that critique so I can sleep.
peace y'all.
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the Week: Don't wear heels to a basketball game when you know you're gonna be on your feet cheering the whole time. I am so smart sometimes...(/sarcasm)
On a related note, I got a text book at the UMBC bookstore for a reasonable price...shocking! $26 for my Poli text book, which was the only reason I actually bought it from here versus online or sharing Alethea's. Spanish book was close around $100...yeah not buying that one. Hooray for the library, same with History, cuz Heaven knows we don't actually read all 14 books. Since we can't do the papers on any of them it makes more sense to just get them from the library as theyre needed.
Speaking of the library, I'm still kinda ticked they turned the 7th floor study lounge into a computer lab, but in all fairness, it has been helpful. I went over to the library to print out a paper today, and I was amazed at technology. The paper was saved to my flash drive, and as I look at it, I'm amazed at how I can type something up on my computer, put a little stick in the side of my computer, and with a few clicks, my 2 page paper is now on this little tiny rectangular thingydo. It's pretty nifty, and extremely convenient. What's not convenient is that I had to walk to the library to print said paper, because of course my printer is STILL on the fritz...gotta get that checked out this weekend. I don't go to a nerd school for nothing, so time to find one of my tech savvy friends and get them to fix it. Also need to make a trip to walmart this weekend and buy ink, seeing as the ink I need is of course the ONE KIND THE BOOKSTORE DOESN'T SELL. gaaaahhhh.
So now that I've sorted out some thoughts, time to get back to that critique so I can sleep.
peace y'all.
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the Week: Don't wear heels to a basketball game when you know you're gonna be on your feet cheering the whole time. I am so smart sometimes...(/sarcasm)
Thursday, February 5, 2009
2.5.09 <3
Thrilled to pieces doesn't even begin to cover how happy I am :)
I'm fluctuating between amused and slightly disturbed that all our friends predicted it, or at the very least are not surprised. So everyone except me is getting really good at predicting my life. WTF?!
No matter, I'm way too happy to let it stress me out. The sunshine is perfect for this amazing day, and an optimistic sign for what's to come in the months ahead.
peace y'all.
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: When your printer is generally unreliable, print your assignments the night before the class, to give you flexibility when it acts up. Actually, it's probably a good idea to do the assignment the night before it's due instead of the morning of...yeahhhh.
I'm fluctuating between amused and slightly disturbed that all our friends predicted it, or at the very least are not surprised. So everyone except me is getting really good at predicting my life. WTF?!
No matter, I'm way too happy to let it stress me out. The sunshine is perfect for this amazing day, and an optimistic sign for what's to come in the months ahead.
peace y'all.
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: When your printer is generally unreliable, print your assignments the night before the class, to give you flexibility when it acts up. Actually, it's probably a good idea to do the assignment the night before it's due instead of the morning of...yeahhhh.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Just a quick note...
So my life has a way of turning itself upside down and inside out when I least expect it. There's a pattern I've noticed--when school is going nuts, my social life is all good. Once I get school figured out, my social life kicks into high gear and tends to do all in its power to throw me for a loop. This pattern has continued over the past week. I've only been back to school a week but it feels like it's been at least two weeks because so much has been happening.
The week started out with scheduling and classes doing all in their power to frustrate me and then some. Monday and Tuesday were very very long. By the end of the day Wednesday I had most of that figured out, so it would figure that
my social life would choose then to start flipping itself all over every which way. For once I'm not unhappy about it. There's alot to still be decided and discussed but I'm becoming more sure every day, that no matter what comes of this, everything will work out for the best. :)
Also: umbc fails at snow and ice removal.
Peace y'all.
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson: Heels and ice are not a good combination. Then again, since when am I the one to choose practicality over style?
The week started out with scheduling and classes doing all in their power to frustrate me and then some. Monday and Tuesday were very very long. By the end of the day Wednesday I had most of that figured out, so it would figure that
my social life would choose then to start flipping itself all over every which way. For once I'm not unhappy about it. There's alot to still be decided and discussed but I'm becoming more sure every day, that no matter what comes of this, everything will work out for the best. :)
Also: umbc fails at snow and ice removal.
Peace y'all.
P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson: Heels and ice are not a good combination. Then again, since when am I the one to choose practicality over style?
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