Christmas

Christmas is just around the corner now.  Black Friday has already arrived.  I even pulled my first all-nighter in order to get the "bargains".  It was CRAZY.  I do not really like that day.  There are people everywhere, no where to park, the longest lines EVER, and everyone is rude and cranky. My family and I went into Kohls around 3:00 a.m. Friday morning and there was very little selection in anything.  The lines to all the registers wrapped completely around the entire store, estimating a 2 hour wait.  That is longer than some rides require at amusement parks! I heard that some stores put adds in the paper or on commercials for certain products with remarkable deals, then order only a couple of said object.  That way customers come streaming in for the good deal and once the few are gone, they resort to other sales.
On the bright side, things are usually a lot cheaper.  My sisters and I were able to try on some of our Christmas presents and pick them out ourselves.  It was also a good time to spend with my family since I do not get to see them very often anymore.

Music

I learned something new about myself tonight.  Music helps me get things done.  I have no idea why! If I have some sort of music, it doesn't really matter what type, playing I focus easier.  I have had music playing on my computer since 3:00 this afternoon and I have not gotten off track once! I haven't even checked facebook or sent a single text. I am so happy I have discovered this, because I have a lot to do.  I made a whole to-do list for today and I have completed a lot of it. Is this why there is a such thing as music therapy? Does music hold a kind of "special power"? I will admit music can change your mood.  If you are listening to classical music you are generally more relaxed and at ease.  If you are listening to screamo your blood pressure raises and you are more tense.  Now that I think about it, my lab group last year did an experiment on this.  We tested 20 people for changes in blood pressure and heart rate as the music changed.  It was a very cool experiment.

finals

My first week of college finals start in two weeks! It is hard to believe that an entire semester has already flew by. I thought it would go by a lot slower. But then again, high school was over before I knew it too. I have a plan.  I will begin making my study materials for all my classes this week.  Then, I will begin to study them whenever I can focus.  Even making the materials is a type of studying.  I am surprised that college professors basically hand out a study guide to an extent.  I was under the impression that you are completely on your own in college.  Profs lecture, students take notes...we keep on top of assignment, no reminders...tests creep up on you and there is extra material the professor didn't even cover...you have to keep track of the dates of everything on your own! But it's almost the complete opposite. I have been reminded multiple times when tests and assignments are due.  It may just be Wartburg, I wouldn't know, but I deeply appreciate it. So now the studying begins and I wish luck to all freshmen!

Driving

Last Wednesday was the day before Thanksgiving and break. I recieved a call from my mom and a couple of neighbors telling me I should consider heading home early in order to avoid the bad weather.  So I packed up and was on my way.  The first thing I noticed was the bad wind. You easily feel it on the on-ramp to highway 218.  Once I got onto HWY-20 it got even worse.  The traffic was only going 35-40 mph.  We were even at a stand still for about 20 minutes, because there was a very icy bridge. 

After the bridge the traffic started going around 35-40 mph.  Since it was just after the traffic jam, the road was packed.  I must have hit a patch of ice just as a gust of wind came, because I started to fish tail.  I had to choose the car beside me or the ditch on my left; I chose the ditch. I spun one and one half times before I finally was able to get my car to stop.  I was facing the opposite direction.  I almost went into oncoming traffic and hit a bridge.  Luckily, I was able to drive right out of the ditch and was back on track.  After that I went about 30 mph.  It took me about 3 hours to get home instead of 2 hours.

nationals!

We qualified for nationals! I'm so lucky to have such a great team! Not only are they my new best friends, they are amazing and talented people.  The women's team received second place to Luther yesterday morning. We had four out of the seven that ran become all-regionals as well, including Lori Tlach taking first place! She has been working so hard all season and she deserves the honor :)

The weather wasn't as bad as everyone expected it to be.  Yeah, it was rainy and freezing cold but it wasn't snowing and the wind was not very bad! Once again though I heard the weather is supposed to be really cold and snowy when I run next. But ohhhh well.  Every other runner in the race is running in the same conditions.  And all the Wartburg runners have the home advantage; fans, knowledge of the course, etc. What more can we ask for?

Angie

I don't know if I have already told you, but I have an abnormally large family. I'm the oldest of five! I have three sisters and one brother.  Alex is 16, Nicki is 15, Austin is 13, and Angie is 10.  Once, my birthday comes around we will all be two years apart (I will be 19, Alex will be 17, Nicki will still be 15, Austin will still be 13, and Angie will be 11). Anywho, me being the nerd I am I have been super duper excited about Angie's birthday for about a year and a half.  As you can see she will be turning 11 this year.  Her birthday is December 4th.  Before I confuse you too much, lets back track:
1.) I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan.
2.) I was so happy when the first words out of a couple cross country teammates mouths were about Harry Potter:)
3.) What does Harry Potter and my sister's birthday have in common? Harry Potter received his Hogwarts acceptance letter on his 11th birthday.
4.) Angie's 11th birthday is coming up...

so...my newfound HP fans and I went through the first book and found the acceptance letter.  We then retyped it and changed it to comply with my sister's life. An example would be instead of putting "room under the stairs" we put "top bunk in the purple room on the second floor in the southeast corner". It looks so good! Now I just have to wait for December 4th to come around.

regionals

This weekend is a big weekend for all college cross country teams across the nation.  It is the time of the regional meet.  Regionals is your ticket into the national meet.  Doesn't that sound awesome? NATIONALS! Only the top two teams from each regional meet are automatically qualified for the national meet.  There is a committee that looks over the season results of the teams that placed third and fourth in each regional meet and some are chosen to move on.  You can qualify individually too.  This process is confusing.  For each qualifying meet they remove all the individual racers that qualified as a team from the results.  All that are left are the runners that are on teams that didn't qualify.  Of that list the top seven of those individuals qualified for nationals on their own. 

My team has a good shot of qualifying.  It won't come easy though.  BUT we get the advantage of having our home course and all of the wartburg fans cheering us on in their orange.  It is sooooo surprising when you're running your hardest, about ready to fall over and die, when you look up and see the crowd filled with orange. It gives you a burst of energy and a reason to push just a little harder.  I wasn't expecting this kind of support from a college!  Go Wartburg and stay orange:)

Global climate debate

State of Fear has made me doubt what I have learned previously.  I don't know what to think anymore. But the debate at the end of the week has made me "choose" a side.  I will be rooting for the man-made side of the debate.  I don't know how well my side will hold up considering who I will be going up against.  There are a lot of outspoken people on the opposing side.  They also have an easier job of proving their side, because there are more correct evidence out there for the natural side of global warming.  But since I was undecided I am able to take both sides of the arguement.  I guess this will be a very interesting outcome...good luck to both sides!

Urbandale

Because of cross country, I was not able to go home like the rest of the school over fall break.  We had our conference meet.  So I decided to head home this past weekend.  This just so happened to be my brother's birthday weekend.  He turned 13 on Friday.  It was a great coincidence.  I was able to see my entire family, go to a movie, and have cake and ice cream:) 

We saw the movie Megamind.  I hated it! It was so boring.  It is an animated movie about a supervillian with an huge blue head and body.  Even the plot of the movie is boring!

Anywho, going back to Urbandale was kind of strange.  There were so many things that changed since I was last there.  Stop signs were removed, stop lights were added, wider roads, and moved stores!  I completely embarassed myself when I stopped on a street out of habit before I realized the city had removed the stop sign.  I wonder what else will be different when I go back for Thanksgiving break.

College

College is not what I was expecting it to be.  It's a lot harder.  I'm used to getting pretty good grades in high school without trying too hard.  But here it seems like it is impossible to get the grades I strive for.  I have all my papers peer-reviewed by ATLEAST one person, but I have only received one A.  I, also, study for atleast 12 hours for a single test and the highest grade I've received was 85%. It's almost depressing. 

My mom is more confident in me than I am myself.   She keeps telling me that I will figure things out and if I keep trying everything will work out for me.  I wish it were that easy!  If it were, everyone would get awesome grades.  Even though we had fall break I was still swamped! I worked on homework everyday of the break! There was so much to do.  Even though I suffered in my room while everyone else played I still had loads of homework to do this entire week.  I had two tests, hundreds of pages to read, a paper to write, chemistry homework, biology chapters to read and so on.  On top of that I have these blogs to stay on top of, cross country practice, and my work schedule! 

Thanks a lot college!