I never was much of a Midland Mustang. My 8th grade year several of us limped through a volley ball season consisting of four games. We were 1-3 at the end. 

I always thought that if I decided to grace the Mustang team with my athletic prowess, I would be Shelby, a Midland Mustang. A Shelby Mustang. Since my talents lie in areas other than sports, I never accomplished this goal. 

Other than Apple or cute vintage cereals, there are very few brand names that I would actually wear on a t-shirt. Sports teams? never. Youth events I attended? nope. Summer camp shirts? no way José. I'm just not a big t-shirt fan. There are two brands, however, that I've always wanted to sport on my tees. Apple, of course, with an "I'm a mac" shirt. And Shelby Mustang. A year or two ago I searched the internet for one I could tolerate that was not hideous with a super creepy Cobra, and last night at Target I found exactly what I was looking for.
According to my dad's comment below, the car was indeed a small factor in the naming process when I was born. 


"Mom and I both liked the sound of what became your first name, and for me it had additional pleasant overtones of all-American racecar driver and custom-car builder Carroll Shelby (still alive--see this ). When we went to the hospital and you signaled what would be your lifetime speed after a very short session of labor, I said to Mom, 'That Shelby's a speedy racer!' And was it ever true." –my dad
 
My usual class during this time has been cancelled for today. My Renaissance and Reformation class has no homework this entire week. It's kind of throwing me off. But hey, I can't complain. 

Last night was the evening class. I enjoy it, it's like Book Club once a week and you get a grade for it. However, if it's supposed to meet from six to eight-forty, why am I still sitting there at nine? Got back to the room and found messages from Mikey on the answering machine. He has Jones Soda. After taste testing each, he let me keep them.

Sugarplum: It's like carbonated Dimatapp. And maybe we should stick to black and white pictures. Gingerbread tastes like you are drinking gingerbread cookie dough. Pear tree is the best, although it's not true to its name. If it really wanted to taste like a tree, it should taste like the UC caf salad, which has so many assorted greens it tastes like you are eating tree leaves, dandelion, and pokeweed. Maybe Jones should stay away from holiday specials.
 
Class all morning, lunch with the boyfriend and friends, then a little bit to get my papers printed off for the next class. This time it's an article, written to be submitted to a magazine. Appropriate, the class being Magazine Writing.

We have to take five copies to class. One for us, one for the teacher, and three for our peer group members. Oh—our "workshop" group—that's what it's called. Right. Then off to work for an hour or so, dinner and then homework time. 

It's sunny and 62º, says my Weather Channel App. Window open, a little bit of time to relax and read (for class) before class. 

Oh yes—the highlight of the day so far— I cut Rachel's bangs. We are practicing for next year when we are in abroad and the nearest Great Clips is 4,000 miles away. 
 
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A find from my long weekend: Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Candle. It smells like cranberry and it was half off. Thank you, Target. What a way to make my weekend even better. Got to spend quality time with the roomie, friends, and Mikey, so a weekend well spent.

Now we're in week two of sixteen. So I suppose that after this week, we are one eighth through the semester. See, who says English majors can't do math?

It was nice starting the week on a Tuesday, since usually Mondays have 5,830,128 things going on. I just finished up the last of my assignments for tomorrow: Three Letters and a Memo for tech writing. We are learning how to write polite business letters and complaints.
Dear Student Visa System People, Why do you make this so difficult? Must we really drive all the way to Chicago to see you? You are going to ruin my year. Oh wait, that evades rule number seven, "avoid the sympathy trap." The good news is, we get to write to a hypothetical situation, get graded, and have our papers returned to us. 

I love that class. And I'm not one bit sarcastic when I say that.

Tonight? Just leading my Local Literature class in a quiz and discussion for an hour or so. Then I'm printing out tomorrow's papers and heading to bed.

Oh yes, and it snowed last night. 

 
But I sort of do. For instance, Writer With a Day Job was instantly one of my favorites because it's cute, with little graphic scenes of New York City on the cover and spine. Early Modern Europe? Not so much. So what classes would require such reading material as The Idiot's Guide to Grant Writing? Well let me tell you.
I am taking four Humanities classes this semester and one Bible class. Of course they're right up my alley, being an English major and whatnot, but still, I'm going to miss Astronomy and thinking about stars and forces and fission and fusion for a small part of my day. All my classes are on MWF, except for a night class on Tuesdays at 6pm. 
My first class in Renaissance and Reformation. Thus the rather unappealing Early Modern Europe book sits on my shelf. I don't think it's going to be a bad class, it's just small and full of history majors who already seem to know all there is to know, and here I am trying to analyze how our reading could have been more concise. Still, the content is interesting and the class will probably turn out to be a good one. 
Next I have Jesus and the Gospels which is the only class I'm in with more that 15 people. A 300-level Bible class, it reads through The Desire of Ages as well as all four Gospels for the duration of the class. 
Probably my favorite class of all is Technical Writing and Grant Proposals. I'm sure it sounds abysmal, but I really can't think of a class I'd enjoy more, at least this semester. One reason I like it is because it's not a class where people are trying so hard to be creative-writer-y and over-contemplative; you really have to work at it to make tech writing creative. Still, as our professor Mike Mennard has told us, it can be full of creativity and fun. It's already been a blast, four of us five humanities interns are in the class, which I'm pretty sure is all girls. Mike decided to use The Elements of Technical Writing and The Idiot's Guide to Grant Writing for our textbooks this semester. 
My last two classes are taught by the same teacher, one is Magazine Writing and one is Local Literary Wonders, which looks at authors based out of Lincoln. For our first book, Plainsong, I've outsmarted the system and checked it out from the local library. I hope this method works for all nine books we read this semester. Magazine Writing requires three books, Writer With a Day Job (my favorite!), Writing Tools, and Magazine Article Writing, the last of which looks rather dull and doesn't have an appealing font but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for now.
Well, it's work day so I better get ready to head into the office. Happy almost-Friday!
 
Actually, I'm already here. So this tab won't be updated for three whole weeks. 
The last three-four weeks were not blogged as I would have liked. Busy? yes. Finals. Papers. Projects. Ridiculous badminton skills test. But now?
It's all done. 
Today I slept in. I didn't have to wear flip flops in the shower. My inbox got noticeably less action. 
Break is officially on.
 
We are now at T minus 3 hours until Astronomy final blastoff. 
 
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This is how we roll without a freezer. Tonight we ran to Super Saver for a few tasty treats and Rae and decided it was a night for ice cream. Naturally it made much more sense for us to split a four dollar gallon than to each spend a dollar on two bites of frozen sugar crammed into a teeny-tiny cup that looks JUST LIKE the big gallons, however appealing that genuinely is to me. 

It's cold. It's like the arctic, only probably colder. This morning it was 3º and we are actually just hitting our heat wave of 10º. If you spend even five minutes walking around outside, your ears turn into little frozen ice cubes and you can't feel your feet. 

Anyway, we figure this will keep our Eddy's and OreIda fries nice and frozen. Yes, our window is crusty. It's one of the perks of living in a dorm that's 1,749,383 years old. 


My friend Rachel just came in to give me my Christmas present- a can of peppermint frosting! We immediately opened it to try it. Fluoride, she says. It tastes like I'm eating fluoride. Yes, it does. It gives me the sensation of eating toothpaste, I reply. We dissolve into laughter as I nearly choke on my mouthful of toothpaste. In other news: I have $0.55 on my iTunes gift card balance, fourteen cents short of buying  my $0.69 cent song. Oh, the trials and troubles of modern technology. 

 
I've always said I was "not a winter person." I love summer, I love going to the pool, I love being tan. Though I enjoy the Christmas season and the winter that comes with it, I've never like the post-Christmas winter, January and February are so dismal. However, this morning I can't imagine not enjoying the beauty of a brisk walk through a snow-covered world. 

Yesterday morning while RaeLea and I were getting ready for church, it started snowing. All through church, all through lunch, and all afternoon it snowed and snowed and snowed. And I loved it. Mikey and I were at a friend's house for lunch and enjoyed a cozy afternoon playing board games and watching the snow pile up outside. All too soon it was dark out and Mikey and I headed out to a party for the Ministry Club which he is a part of, for more Christmas festivities, games, and food. 

It's a little-known fact that I actually love cleaning off the car in the snow. Of course, not if I'm in a huge hurry or late for work or it's really pouring down freezing rain, but cleaning off light, fluffy snow brings back memories of snow days when my dad would take Logan and I sledding. So when we left to go to the party, I quickly volunteered to clear off the Scion while Mikey help push someone's truck out of the snow who was stuck.

Anyway, this morning RaeLea and I ran over to the Student Center, she was taking a senior class picture and I needed to buy milk. The snow was scintillating in the bright morning sun and I decided it was a perfect day to stay in my cozy room and eat some soup. Canned soup, because, well, I live in a dorm. 

Happy winter everyone!
 
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This week was a doozy. I don't care to repeat it any time soon but we have one week left and then finals so I guess this kind of craziness is inevitable. 

Well on Friday on a trip to the haymarket, we ended up at Indigo Bridge Books. It's a cute little shop where they sell books, as well as gifts and tasty treats in their café. Every time I go they have these super awesome stars hanging, and I just think they are so cool! 

Well, today should be filled with a fair amount of homework, projects, and studying. That's ok though, because in 11 days I'll be going home! In the meantime, there's a few minor recall exercises to complete- finals. And a few presentations. 

Here's another picture of the stars...