Finals Shminals.

24-hr Starbucks=No sleep & Studying

Sometimes you will find that your dorm is rather distracting when you are trying to study. What I mean by that is, when you are reading or doing your math homework, it’s easy to be thrown off. Well, maybe I am just easily distracted because for some reason even the slightest thing, like staring at our Christmas lights on the wall, causes me to lose focus. Don’t worry though, that’s why capital America created a 24-hour Starbucks.
There’s this really neat Starbucks all the way down Burnside that has cool tables, chairs, and coffee. I personally don’t like coffee, but everyone else does. So, for those who need to do lots of studying, thank goodness for Starbucks.
The goal for Danelle and I was to get lots of studying done tonight without getting distracted. However, I am writing this blog and not doing my homework. I have my headphones in my ears right now and from the looks of it, Danelle looks like she is intensely working. Well, she does except for that every time I look at her she starts to make funny faces and then we start to beat an imaginary drum set and recite the words to "The Approaching Curve" by Rise Against. So, yeah, I don’t think either of us are accomplishing much.
















Moral of the story, you can’t stop distractions.

I heart….Oatmeal.

I love to chase cars.
I love to dance whimsically around the room to Snow Patrol.
I love concerts.

…That is why I went to see Snow Patrol a few weekends ago. I generally don’t listen to too many bands like them, but there is just something about them that hooked me. My roommate is also in love with them, so we took each other as a birthday present to ourselves. It was amazing and now I want to marry them all.
















I love oatmeal.
I love Snow Patrol.
I love oatmeal while listening to Snow Patrol.

…And I love this blog because it makes absolutely no sense at all.

Portland, O’ Portland How I Missed Thee.

Unfortunately, Thanksgiving Break is over. As sad as it may be, we only have 2 or so weeks left, which should fly by rather quickly.

Getting to the point.
When you live in the dorms, you need to be prepared for whatever may happen. Some nights, you must be prepared to not get any sleep. Other nights you must be prepared to sneak out to go to Washington and possibly get slurpies (not that we did, it just seems like a pretty neat idea). Then there are those nights that you must prepare yourself to get barged in on by 5 other girls. It’s quite funny actually, just when you think you are going to have some peace and quiet…”BAM” the door opens and in walks someone with something in their hand that they want to do. Sometimes its homework, maybe a box of KIX and they just want to play CLUE, or maybe Laura with her computer. It’s always a different story. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind that much, it’s actually quite fun. It’s actually so much fun that I’ve begun to create a game out of it. It’s pretty easy; it goes a little like this:

Every night try to see how far along you can get while getting ready for bed before someone comes in. If you make it all the way into your bed and only half way asleep before someone comes in, it doesn’t count, you have to be asleep. –I’ve made it there 2 times.




I really don’t mind though. It’s fun and it keeps life interesting. Actually, the dorms wouldn’t quite be the dorms if people didn’t always come in uninvited. Now that I think about it, some of the best memories are made when you don’t expect them to. For instance, the other night we had a “Sparkling Cider” party in a room down the hall. Unfortunately, when we took the picture Erika’s face got smudged, and if The Ring is right, because movies always are, something not so great is going to happen to her. For Danelle, she just disappeared so I took the liberty to redraw her.

The Real Break

So Thanksgiving break was definitely a good thing. Although I missed my classes, eating from the cafeteria, and all the wonderful homework we so graciously are assigned each week, it was nice to be back. I learned some pretty neat things while being home and they go a little something like this:
1. When you move, your room will not be the way you left it. In other words, your parents will get a hold of it and in some way they will rearrange it, or in my case use my closet for stupid stuff.
2. Take your laundry home! I guarantee that your mom will wash it for you!
3. Don’t worry about what you will eat. Your parents will go out and stock up on all of the good stuff you have been deprived from for the past few months.
4. Life does go on without you. Well, I was shocked.
5. Do your homework.
6. When you turn a year older, you magically become much, much wiser overnight. It’s true; my birthday was over the break and overnight my "Wise Scale" jumped from like 2 to 200. It’s pretty much amazing I must say!
7. It’s easy to NOT notice that your dog is pregnant. Apparently mine is.
8. AND…I can make one amazing gingerbread house!!!





Tyler (a friend from Texas) and I made gingerbread houses.... mine is the cooler one. :)

TURKEY!!

Give thanks for Thanksgiving ... break. When our forefathers were planning out this glorious day, I’m pretty sure they took into consideration the many college students who would later be struggling to finish the semester. It truly is amazing how much school can drain you not only mentally, but physically as well. Thanksgiving break is here and I have not seen anyone who is not completely and utterly thrilled beyond belief. We’ve been in school now for about 3 months and after our amazingly long break we will come back for about 2.5 weeks depending on when finals are over. After that, the first semester is over! YAY! That means that I made it through my 1st semester in college!

Cascade has many neat things about it, but I must say that nothing quite compares to how long our breaks are. Example, I am flying to Texas for Thanksgiving. My Dad teaches college there and they only get off the Wednesday before and are expected back the following Monday. Cascade however, is finished the Friday before and if you are not so good at math I will help convert that to days for you:
9 Days
10 Nights (Well sorta)

That’s all.
Cascade = Ridiculously long breaks.



Sorry about the picture.