Uneventful But Still Stressful

Sup friends. This week has been pretty uneventful for the most part. Here are a few highlights.

• Sunday was my half birthday. Now I have a little less than 6 months until I can legitimately sing Taylor Swift’s 22 and understand what it means. LOL
• Tuesday was Mizzou’s 175^th birthday. Happy Birthday, Mizzou! Thanks for the free cake and t-shirt!
• Also on Tuesday, I ran into my cousin in the bookstore and found out he has been a TA for the past year. NO ONE TELLS ME ANYTHING. Then I ran into Nick on the way to class after that.
• Tuesday, I watched Shaun White become Sad Shaun White. I was pretty upset all day to be honest, especially since I spoiled the results for myself by scrolling through Twitter. Watching him fall was heartbreaking.  I blame the Russians and the damn slushy half pipe.
• All week I’ve been running around like a crazy woman, trying to find someone to cover my demo shift on Saturday at HV since my dad and step-mom are coming into town.
•  Today I found out I’m getting checker trained next week and I’m so happy! It’s been a long time coming.
• I downloaded Flappy Bird before they took it off the app markets. I’m addicted. My high score right now is 47.
• I’ve been really into Bastille lately. This is one of my favorite songs from them right now, although I’m not sure about the music video. LOL. How surprised are you that I’m into a British band?

Anyway, like Cathy, this next week is getting pretty busy. Along with having 3 shifts this next week at HV, I have an art project to start preparing/working on, a speech to research and write, a paper to start writing and a test to start studying for. And my online pathophysiology class starts next week too. EEEEEK.

Happy early Single’s Awareness day! And Happy early President’s day!

Peace out, girl scouts.

Megan

Bye London

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last blogged but I figured I would anyway even though it’s not my day. Sorry (Derek)?

Well of course I’m not in London anymore. But last week was pretty great because, since it was my last week, I had a lot of free time to do a few things I still wanted to do. Also, Thursday night was completely insane, because it was the last night everyone had together. We went to O’Neil’s, of course (which I hate and you guys know that) but it was okay because I was pretty uh intoxicated and so was everyone else. Like way over the top. I remember singing “Thrift Shop” at the top of my lungs with Carson as we walked to O’Neil’s from Piccadilly Circus. I’m actually kind of surprised we got in because apparently one of our other friends, they kept telling her to go to McDonald’s and then come back. Which she did, five times, and they still wouldn’t let her in. She later said “It was like everyone was drunk for the first time, that’s how bad it was” which I thought was a very good way to put it.

We all paid for it with killer hangovers at British High Tea the next day. Oops. That’s classic, huh? Memories. That’s how I see it 😉

Then of course Saturday was my 21st birthday! I can’t believe I’m 21, though of course it doesn’t feel too different yet but I’m super excited! I had a great birthday away from home, even though it involved a lot of crying. But it also involved wonderful friends, Big Ben, and chocolate cake. And one drink 🙂

It was super hard to leave London. I’m already missing all my friends soooo much. I can’t believe it’s over and things will never be how they were again. I’m torn between being happy for everyone that they’re back home, but mostly I’m wishing we were all still together in London and the fun could continue.

But on the bright side, I’m in Germany! Having a great time so far. (Do I really have to go home in a week??) Moritz and I went out for dinner last night, my birthday dinner he said, and I had my favorite German food- schnitzel at our favorite German restaurant in Heidelberg. Then I came back to his apartment and he wrapped his scarf around my head while he set up a surprise, which were sooooo many candles and a tiramisu cake and lots of hearts all over the place ❤ and then we watched the Chiefs beat the Raiders 56-31 and ate the tiramisu. Today we hung out in Heidelberg and then went to the grocery store, and then cooked dinner 🙂 And now he’s working on a project so that’s why I decided to blog.

This is probably my last blog from Europe, right 😦 Well anyway, I miss you guys!

Cathy

Rest In Pieces to My Summer

Well, the end of my summer is nigh. I’m down to 5 days until I leave for my semester in London now.

Last Sunday (July 28) was my last day at IHOP. Since then, I’ve been all about trying to have as much fun as I can with the people here that are important to me.

My family and I went camping in our backyard on Saturday night. We played 20 questions in the tent and Harry Potter Uno, just like always. On Sunday morning, we went to IHOP (not the one I worked at) for breakfast to celebrate my parents’ anniversary. It’s actually on August 19 (but we won’t all be around on the 19th this year) and we started the tradition of going on their anniversary 13 years ago in San Antonio, Texas, when we were on vacation there. That was back when you could be on vacation on August 19 because school didn’t start until September. Those were the days. Anyway I was definitely an expert on the menu when we went the other day. I didn’t even need to open mine to know what I wanted and I was able to counsel my family members on their breakfast choices by providing guidance and ingredient information.

Here are the things that Derek, Kendyl, Megan, and I did last week: went to Derek’s house, had breakfast at Burger King, almost went to a Silversun Pickups concert, changed our mind and went to a movie downtown, had homemade chow mein at Megan’s, went to World Market (world market, we’re talkin’ bout world market), had pie from Burger King, and made sushi just to name a few activities.

Yesterday was also a very fun friend-filled day. We (along with Gentry) went to the Kansas City Zoo and we rode the Skyfari. It was pretty fun, unfortunately it started getting pretty hot and then we really needed to get out of there. Then we took a trip to Oklahoma Joe’s Barbecue for lunch and all had the Z-Man sandwich except for Gentry. Lolz.

Later I invited them over to my house for dinner because we’ve eaten dinner a lot at Megan’s house this summer but not at mine. My mom made us stuffed shells and I made cupcakes. It was really nice sitting around the table and talking for hours. Also I learned how to do the cup song from Pitch Perfect.

I decorated these cupcakes with the UK flag 😉

These three will be visiting me in November! Love them ❤ #london2013

Well, there’s definitely more fun to come at the end of the week. Friday is Megan’s birthday and we’re going to have dinner and swim at Kendyl’s house, then go camping 😉 And Saturday night I’ll go to the Sporting KC soccer game with my dad, just the two of us.  We went to a game last fall and it was awesome so I’m pretty excited for that too! 🙂

Don’t know if I’ll blog again before I leave for Europe, I doubt it 😉

Rest In Pieces to my summer (and to gray squirrel).

-Cathy

Looking back, looking ahead

So today was the last day of the first semester of my second year of college. That’s a lot of ordinal adjectives. Also, I’m now in my final two days as a teenager, before I enter the abyss otherwise known as “the 20’s”. So I thought I’d just take some time to look back a little at both of these things.

This semester has been a really hard one for me – and I don’t mean that my classes have been hard. I didn’t necessarily like many of them considering that they were all basically Gen Eds, but if that was the extent of my problems this semester, then that probably would have been okay. As you guys know, on the first day of the semester I got some terrible news and things got off to a bad start for me, and it never really could come back up after that. Also, I guess I’ve begun to view the world in a different way than I ever have before, and while that itself isn’t bad, it can be unsettling and uncomfortable at times. But I also realize that this is a part of life that is important, because of course nobody sees everything the same way for their whole life.

Even though there were some bad days, there were also a lot of good things that happened too. I finally was able to find a job, and it’s one that I really enjoy and is easy to balance along with school. I volunteered at the animal shelter and the puppies, kittens, and three other volunteers named Lori, Chase, and Jason never failed to make me smile. I made some new friends and hung out with “old” ones more. I called my mom a lot when I had bad days, and that always helped. I feel like we got even closer this semester. I spent time with my family when I went home, and I went to a Sporting KC game with my dad. I feel like I’ve learned to appreciate people more and the time I have to spend with them.

As far as turning 20 is concerned, I have kind of mixed feelings about it! On one hand, I’m excited to leave behind the negative connotations that come with the title of “teenager”, because personally at age 19 and maybe 18 I never really identified with being a “teenager” anymore. I’m excited to start something new. On the other hand, I’m sad to leave behind the negative connotations that come with the title of “teenager”, because it represents new freedom, immaturity, teen pregnancy (jk), irresponsibility, being carefree, and it gives you an excuse for when you mess up. I’ve had a lot of really great experiences as a teenager, like my first trip to Europe, and some really bad experiences as a teenager. It’s weird to think that soon I will be moving into the next decade of my life (the one that precedes “the 30’s” – yikes) and that this age group is usually highlighted by real jobs, bills, marriage, and sometimes children. That is seriously disconcerting and also really freaky.

Overall, I’m excited to be moving forward. I’m glad that The Semester From Hell is over, and I’m pretty indifferent about leaving my teenage years, but I like to see these endings as opportunities for fresh starts. I am determined to make the best of them and enjoy every moment. I hope you guys enjoyed my first philosophical post. I recommend that you go listen to some Of Monsters and Men because they are the soundtrack of my life right now, and I’m going to spend some time with my family before I leave for Germany in 9 days!

Cathy

P.S. I just convinced my mom to let me have a birthday party next week, you’re all invited (except I already know that Kendyl and Derek can’t come). But the rest of you have no excuse.

P.P.S. Sorry for ruining the title pattern of the weekdays, but I feel like it didn’t really fit with mine 😉

I’m getting old.

Today I am officially 19.5 years old. (It is also Derek’s birthday. Happy birthday Beibs.) And it really got me thinking. I’m almost out of my teens!! I mean I still have 6 more months… But then that’s it!!! Then I’ll be 20! Woah, man… That shit cray.

In other news…
Remember how I blogged about my first symphony rehearsal and how I told you there was a photo shoot because some local magazine was doing a feature on the Liberty Symphony? Well here’s the article that the picture is in. I saw it and was like “EW.” For one I look like I had been smoking something…. Good thing I don’t roll like that (LOL. that was punny). Anyway my first Symphony concert is one week from Saturday, so I’m getting nervous about that because we don’t get a lot of time to practice as a whole group. But thankfully there are professionals that actually know what their doing. Also Bryan Busby, the weather guy, plays the timpani with the Liberty Symphony! So that should be exciting (I’m probably the only person that’s excited by that, lol)!

Also today in my written communications class, we went over the differences between their, there, and they’re as well as the differences between your and you’re, and it’s and its. And before we talked about that, we talked about pronouns and how to use them. I can’t believe I’m paying money to go to that class. SMH.

Anyway, that’s all for now.
Peace out, girl scout.

Megan