Feb 23

I love when nature does cool things. Which is pretty often.

Feb 22

I love getting up early in the morning and studying. Its the one time of the day when the house is completely quite.

Feb 21

I love understanding calculus. 

Feb 20

This is Spunky. He lives on the 3rd floor with us and has managed to capture the heart of every girl in my pledge class. We all love this little guy.

Feb 19

I love hats. 

Feb 18

I love how diverse college is. I'm not talking about race or culture or any of that, I'm talking diversity among interests. Especially here at Purdue. In my sorority alone we've got everything from engineers, to a girl majoring in monkeys (but really, she is. Its so cool.)! Even though we all are similar in various ways, one of the things that sets us apart the most is our majors. You see strengths in one girl that are anthers biggest weakness. But best of all, in most (unfortunately not all), you see so much passion (i.e. Demri Braun: Fashion Major. Shown in the above picture). I'm one of these nut balls and feel like I speak for most people when I say that my major is pretty much my boyfriend. For those of you who don't really understand what I mean, heres a list of reasons why your major is like your boyfriend:

1. You spend hours with it every day, studying and learning about it. 

2. It has the ability to confuse the hell out of you. 

3. You are constantly finding out things that you want to change about it or things that irk you. 

4. You're protective of it. I DARE someone to ask me why in the world I would ever want to major in rocks one more time.  

5. You see things in it that no body else does.

6. It brings out your nerdy side. 

7. It keeps you up late at night.

8. It makes you excited, sometimes giving you butterflies. 

9. You're proud of it and want to show it off. 

10. There are points when you want to punch it in the face and quit but you don't because you know its really not what you want you're just stressed.

11. It can make you go on a cheesy bread eating binge (refer to #10).

12. You can't help but thinking about your future with it. 

13. It can sometimes make you cry.

14. You love it. And then you hate it. And then you love it. And then you hate it. 

15. But really you just love it.

Feb 17

I LOVE HATS. They are with out a doubt my favorite item of clothing in the entire world. I wear one nearly every day and am probably going to go bald early because of it. Its gotten to the point that my friends say I look odd without one (like wearing glasses all the time and then suddenly switching to contacts). Hats are my thing and have been ever since my mom bought me a sock monkey hat my senior year of high school that I promptly wore every single day of my life. I love that I am recognized and identified by my hats. I think they're pretty cool. 

Feb 16

To most of your dismay, I bought a new nose ring! I ordered it from some lady off of Etsy a few days later it was delivered inside an adorable little letter. Now only was the whole attaching the ring to a leaf idea super cute, but she also hand-wrote me a personal thank you note! Regardless of its packaging I would have been equally excited about its arrival, but the fact that this lady, Gia, had taken the time to personally thank me for buying from her actually granted me happiness along with excitement. A little love and tenderness really goes a long way.

Feb 15

Grand Prix is a huge event at Purdue that takes place two weeks before finals week. In a nut shell, each sorority is paired up with a fraternity to hang out with all week and they shower you with presents and things like blow-up bounce houses galore. Its a marvelous week. During the couple of months prior to Grand Prix, the fraternities and sororities do what we call, butter-ups. Basically you kiss your desired house's butt so that they pick you to be their pair. We've gotten everything from 50 Den-Pops, milkshakes, and icies, delivered to our house, to a mountainous platter of chocolate-covered strawberries, to being personally serenaded for our butter-ups this year. Its always a feisty time of the year but also a very delicious one. The fraternities really showed us the love with all of the goodies they bought us. These blow up heart balloons got delivered to us on V-Day. They're a little extreme, but hey. 

Feb 14

Happy very extremely absolutely completely super belated Valentines Day everybody! I hope each of you received buckets of love and chocolates. Even though I'm single, I still enjoy Valentines Day very much. The people who hate on it with a burning passion grind my gears just a little bit. Its a holiday people, and it comes baring hugs, hearts, and limited edition candies! I don't like chocolate but for the sake of the holiday I'll choke down a candy kiss or two. Also, I don't like the color pink but I'll slip a sliver of the color into my wardrobe just for the occasion. I'm a holiday guru and love to be festive. Even though I didn't have a boyfriend, I still received a sweet heart-shaped doily from my best friend reminding me that I'm her gal pal, and two old school Barbie and Justin Bieber valentines (both accompanied with sweet tats). Later I got asked by my friend Carter to go to Sigma Chi for a laid back, last minute date function where I got to spend the rest of the night dancing and drinking champagne with my friends. I really think that if you face things (like being single on V-Day) with a smile and glass-half-full kind of attitude, the universe opens doors and windows for you. Happy very belated Valentines Day! I love you all! 

Feb 13

When I decided that I wanted to take a picture of the color pink to use for my blog this month, I immediately thought of my friend Bridget. The girl has an arguably unhealthy obsession with anything that involves glitter and the color pink. This is her desk. Its not like this just because Valentines Day is near, its like this every other day as well. It describes her so well and makes me laugh every time I look at it. To me, pink is not just the color of love, its the color of Bridget. 

Feb 12

The nearing of Valentines Day has turned Pi Phi into a flower jungle. Parents, boyfriends, and gal pals are spreading the love with bouquets upon bouquets, upon bouquets. My personal favorites are daisies, but I'd rather get a bundle of fake ones. Watching these guys wither breaks my heart and its a little depressing. 

Feb 11

Feb 10

I'm gonna let myself cheat for this picture. Photo creds actually go to Lia for taking the picture but it was such a Kodak moment that I had to slip it in here. This hunk and two beauties are my brother and sisters. My brother was nominated to be in my high school's annual Mr. LN pageant which required him to hop on stage with 11 other junior and senior boys and participate in a Q&A, outfit, and talent competition. Every year I go and leave with sore abs from laughing so much. I came home for the evening to watch my brother strut his stuff and blow his competition to Mars. I was especially excited because my youngest sister, Reagan was helping him out with his talent. The two of them completely memorized and acted out the Perfect Cheer skit from SNL. They killed it. I'm such a sap and had chills the whole time and was so unbelievably proud of them. I couldn't wait to run up to them after the competition and give them a big squeeze and have everyone see that these were my brother and sister. I can't lie and say that the 4 of us get along and feed off of each others company 100% of the time... But we've come a long way. Its weird to see how grown up we are all getting and how much it brings us closer together now that we're all beginning to work our way to the same maturity level (emphasis on "beginning to"). Whether they realize it or not I love them with my whole heart and would do just about anything for each of them. They've managed to put up with me for their whole lives without killing me and that without a doubt screams love. I'm so proud to be one of the fish-eyed Geiger 4. 

If you're looking for a good laugh.. Watch my brother and sister doing their Perfect Cheer on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzd76LmkmPk

Feb 9

My dad picked me up from Purdue so that I could come back and watch my brother compete in the Mr. LN pageant and since Indy drivers act like its their first driving experience during a snowfall every time it snows, we decided to take the back way home. We're talkin' on loooooooong country road with no pit stops for miles. Naturally we ran out of gas about 25 minutes into our drive. With luck we were able to chug to a little side road before the car clunked out all together. We were in a bit of a time crunch and we knew that if we called AAA we would never get back to Indy in time to see my brother strut his stuff. So we resorted to Plan B: walk to the nearest house and hope that they'll spare us some gas. Since we were in the middle of nowhere my dad had to walk a quite some ways to get to the nearest house but returned with a small amount of gas. We poured her in, crossed our fingers and prayed that it would be enough to turn the car on. It wasn't. My dad trekked back to the house and 2 minutes later I get a call saying that the guy had offered to take him to the gas station. I held down the fort in the 'Burb for a good 25 minutes while my dad went to collect gas with a stranger. Once on the road again my dad and I couldn't help but smile upon the situation. This man who very easily could have lied and said he didn't have gas, could have not offered to take my dad to get gas, or could have ignored the stranger knocking on his door all together. But he didn't. My dad said that he was one of the kindest people he had ever met even after spending just a short time with him. He told me that he could tell how much love he had for his family which does not surprise me from how easily he showed us love. I don't even think my dad and I even looked back once at that situation as anything less than a good memory all because a stranger was kind enough to pass out some love.

Feb 8

This right here, is my best friend on the entire planet. Actually, even title "best friend" doesn't really properly suit what this girl is to me. I guess the best way to put it is that she's my sister from another mister. I love telling our story because its one that many people don't have the honor of getting to tell. We met when we became next door neighbors when we were just two years old and have been inseparable ever since. The aspect of our friendship that amazes people is that even after we both moved, and kindergarden through senior year never went to the same school, our friendship has done nothing but grow. Its funny how completely ironic this picture is now that I'm looking at it. I can't tell you how many hours Lia and I spent sitting in her room when we were little playing Nintendo 64 surrounded by mounds of food. You can't see it in this picture but while we were home for Super Bowl weekend we decided to spend the night cooped in her room, playing Nintendo 64, surrounded by chips and cookies galore. Even when we were picking our our Mario Kart drivers, out of habit I gave her a little sucker punch for getting to Yoshi first and having to settle for Donkey Kong (even though "secretly" I would never not choose DK). Its moments like that night sitting in Lias room, perfectly content with a bag of cookies, a video game from the 90's, and each others company when there was a huge party going on downtown that remind me how special our friendship is. After 16 years of not going to the same school, we both ended up choosing Purdue University as our college of choice. We lived in the same dorm complex but decided not to room with each other, but with another pair of best friends from her high school which worked out wonderfully. A week into freshman year, we went through rush, during which we decided not to discuss with each other so that we wouldn't influence each other's choice of house. Sure enough we both ended up in the same one, Pi Beta Phi. The two of us have been through it all together and I can't even begin to imagine how I would get through college with out having her here with me. She's the one person aside from my family that I feel absolutely 100% comfortable with and unconditionally accepted and loved by. Its funny to think about how completely different we are as people but how close we have continued to remain. I can only hope that my kids find the same kind of friendship that I have found with Lia. I love her to the moon and back and can't wait for the day when we are 93 years old, sitting in rocking chairs on the porch reminiscing about our crazy lives. 

Lia also has a blog too! Check it out: http://liakennedy.tumblr.com/

Feb 7

As I'm completely positive most of you are already aware, the Super Bowl was held in my home city, Indianapolis, Indiana. The amount of havoc that was reeked the week preceding the big day was unreal. A couple blocks of a street downtown was completely blocked off and transformed into Super Bowl Village, celebrities suddenly became my neighbors for the weekend, and it seemed like everyone had taken happy pills. I've always been a huge fan of big events and pure chaos. I love airports if that helps you understand what I mean. I'm so fascinated by how people behave in excited environments and am fully entertained when I engage in people watching. Its always a give in that when you plop a mass amount of people in one area there are going to be a couple disputes. Especially when its a mix of people where half are present for one reason (the Giants) and the other half are present for the exact opposite reason (the Patriots). But its not the fights that intrigue me, its the friendship and love between strangers and that seems to come out of nowhere. Its like being at a concert, everyone is brought together for at least one mutual reason and it suddenly makes everyone friends. If you look around you'll see drunken strangers high fiving, girls signing fat mens bellies, adults scotching over so that the little kid can get the better view at the concert, yadda, yadda, yadda. I even saw a girl get proposed to! Corny as it sounds, being a part of Super Bowl weekend really made me appreciate where I'm from and it made me so happy being able to witness a great amount of  love between strangers taking place in a city that I call home. 

Feb 6

This is my dad and his two cousins Christine (my godmother) and Kathleen. I refer to the two of them as my aunts because they might as well be his sisters. My dad grew up without any siblings but from what I understand he had the farthest thing from an only-child childhood. He and his two cousins Greg (the older brother of these two) and Bernie grew up attached at the hip and even went to college together at DePauw University. Its very easy to see why he is such a family man. My dad has a bigger heart than anyone I know and is truly the one person that I know that would put absolutely anyone before himself. Although its this quality of his does tend to frustrate me on occasion, its what I admire most about him and what I aspire to be every day. Its funny looking back on my child and teen years when giving up one precious night with friends to watch a movie with the family or having to refuse a spring break trip Florida to go to Hawaii with the Geiger 6 seemed like such a sacrifice, those times with my family are my fondest memories. Its funny in high school how hard it is to picture your life any farther down the road than it was at that given moment and not realize how much time you actually have to do all of those things with friends, and how little time you have to do things with your entire family. I love the way that I was raised and how heavily my dad has always pushed the importance of family on my brother and sisters and I. Its a role that I hope to take on as a parent some day. The most important thing that my dad has taught me is that family is love and to embrace it as much as you can.  

Feb 5

I know I've posted about my friends multiple times but how could I not include them during the love theme? Aren't they precious? These guys, plus a few more, are my best friends from home and some of my favorite people in the world. Just looking at this picture puts a big ol' grin on my face and makes me all warm and fuzzy inside thinking about how many memories and good times I have shared with each of them. I love that even though we now lead completely different lives and are apart about 9 months out of the year, we have yet to grow apart. We still crack each other up, get along, and want to hang out with each other.. Despite my weirdness, awful texting skills, and occasional lack of ability to think before I act, they've never left my side. I love them with all my heart and soul and am so thankful to have friends that never fail to make me feel special and loved.

Feb 4

My roommate, Monica, met with her dad a couple of weeks ago and came back with oodles and oodles of valentines goodies. We're talking conversation hearts (meh..), these irresistible cupcakes, and best of all... Justin Bieber valentines day cards (stickers included). This was at the end of January and its shocking to me that these cupcakes have not vanished yet. She even gave Carlee, Sparkles and I permission to eat them. Carlee and I did finally give in last night and split one of them and it was nearly impossible to not reach for another one. The icing was impeccable! Remember those little barbie cakes? The ones that had the barbie stuck in the middle of them and the cake was her dress? Remember how amazing the icing on those cakes were? Thats how this icing tasted. Valentines Day makes everything yummier. 

Feb 3

Nothing screams love louder than being trapped inside a long, tight, hug. Its amazing how comforting a something as simple as wrapping your arms around someone and squeezing them to pieces can be. The thing that I love the most about hugs is that the satisfaction of a hug doesn't come only from your friends or family. In fact, some of the most meaningful hugs I've received have come from people who are practically strangers to me. The quiet power of a hug is truly astounding to me. It has the ability to make you feel protected and loved, it can help you heal (even if only just for that moment), and are a reminder to you that you are never alone. 

Feb 2

I'm completely smitten by this picture so I felt I needed to share it with everyone. Normally I like blogging about pictures that I've taken that day but this one was just too good to not use. The thing that I love most about this photo is that even though half of my moms face is being blocked by this adorable ball of cuteness, you can still tell that she is just so dang happy! You can always tell when people are honest-to-goodness happy in pictures when they smile with their eyes. But who can blame her? How could you not be happy when you're holding a precious little puppy in your hands. I don't know how puppies do it but they seem to have this magic spell over people making just about everyone fall in love with them. I mean honestly, have you ever picked up a puppy and not wanted to keep it? I'm telling you... they're magic. I am glad though that they haven't shared their secret for making people fall in love with them with anyone else. That could get complicated if we started falling in love with everyone we meet. Its interesting to see how people's moods change with they're around a puppy. Even if you've had the worst day on planet earth, you can't help but crack a smile when a puppy is near. They're the perfect proof of how love = happiness. 

Feb 1

Finally! A new theme! The month of February is going to bring pictures of love. I've been thinking a lot about how I wanted to approach this theme. I wasn't sure whether these pictures should be of things that I love, or be examples of actual love, or be pictures of cliché symbols for love. I'm awful at choosing so I figured I should include pictures that fall under all three of those categories. I feel like the variety will give it a little more flavor. For my first "love" picture I decided to go with cliché and snap a shot of love in candy form. I'm gonna be honest, I'm not much of a fan of conversation hearts.. a little too chalky for my liking.. but I can't resist collecting a box of them every year when Valentines Day comes around just because they're so festive. Some of the captions really puzzle me because of how utterly cheesy they are but I suppose thats what they're famous for. I've always wondered if anyone has, in all seriousness, slipped their crush a conversation heart that confesses their love for that person. I'm not into cutsey mushy stuff so if that ever happened to me I honestly think I would gag but lets hope its worked out for the best for those who have used conversation hearts for ice breakers. 

Jan 31

I've finally managed to complete all of my blogs for January. Since I've managed to fall so painfully behind, I figured its only natural that my final resolution be to make sure that I never get more than a day behind with my bogs. Because lemme tell ya, its quite a kick in the can once you start racking up 4, 5, and 6 days worth of blogs. Writing them is never a hassle, its actually quite therapeutic. Its the finding free time each day to write it thats challenging. I never realized how go!-go!-go! my life is until I committed to this! Fear not fellow followers, between tomorrow and the day after I have a lot of free time on my hands and I promise that I will be completely caught up by then.. Girl Scout's honor. I really appreciate all of you taking the time to look at my blog it really puts a smile on my face when I see how many views I've gotten in a day. January's entries have made me feel both ambitious and stressed beyond belief. Trying to keep up with 31 resolutions is a bit of a stretch but even if I don't accomplish every single one every day, I've found that at least a few of them play a role in my life each day. 

Alas, it's time to say arrivederci to a month of resolutions, and welcome February with it's fitting theme: Love.

Jan 30

Sigma Chi hosts a formal every year called Pledge Dance which from my understanding is sort of a "last hoorah" for the seniors and a welcoming to the pledges. The pledges pick the theme every year and decorate the house according to that theme. They seniors are the only ones that dress up to the theme and everyone else just wears normal formal attire. Although the theme changes with each year, there is one thing that stays the same every time: the goldfish pond. Let me expand on this a little more.. Every year for Pledge Dance, 600 goldfish are purchased and put into a little pond. During the dance, the guys and their dates go up to the pond, reach in, catch one of the little fishies....and then eat it. Yes. Eat it. I know this is so inhumane and how this tradition started is beyond me but a tradition is a tradition. My friend Carter invited me to go to Pledge Dance with him this year and of course I accepted. I excitedly called my mom to tell her that I had been asked and then proceeded to drop the goldfish bomb. It didn't go over too well. I'm not exaggerating when I say that for the next four days leading up to the formal, there was not one day when I didn't get a text or a call from her begging me not to participate in the fish feast. Naturally every time this happened I talked it up more and more just to grind her gears (this is so fun to do), but honestly I was a little skeptical about it myself. Saturday night I went to the dance and a couple hours in Carter looked at me and said, "ready to eat a live fish!?"... I'm pretty sure thats the first and only time I'll ever be asked that question in my life so of COURSE I said yes. We each grabbed a cup of coke, walked up to the tank and spent about 3 minutes plunging our hands into the water trying to catch our slimy snack. Let me just note that I caught mine first. Fishing with my bare hands really might be my calling...  But thats besides the point. After you catch your goldie of choice, you lock it up in your fist and shake it so that it passes out. Wow writing this out really makes the reality of how awful this is really settle in... So after the fish has passed out, you count to three, toss 'er back, and take a swig of your coke. I honestly could not believe that I did it. What I didn't mention was that somewhere between the shaking of the fish and the counting to three I came thiiiiiiis close to backing out. But I said to heck with it, you only live once so eat the dang fish. Next thing I knew it was in my belly. And then another one was in my belly. And then another one.... and then one more. Yes, I ate four. The following day I did get a little queazy every time I thought about the murdered fish sitting in my belly. But I also couldn't help but laugh at the same time. Not because it was necessarily funny, but just out of awe that I was actually bold enough to eat four live goldfish. But thats what college is all about. In the short time that I've been at Purdue I've learned just about as much about myself as I have about the subjects I've studied. This stage of life is about being bold. Its about stepping out of your comfort zone and challenging yourself to do something that you normally wouldn't do. I've found that if you don't take chances, you regret, you don't learn, and ultimately you cannot grow. I want to spend the rest of my time here at school having as much confidence in myself as I possibly can and being bold. 

Jan 29

How cute are THEY? This is my pal Riley and his new pet puppy. Before I went back to school after Christmas break we stopped by their house to meet the newest member of the Boyle family. Riley is one of the bravest people I know and a huge inspiration to me. I've known this cutie since he was a little baby and have enjoyed so much watching he and his older brother grow up and become their own people. Unfortunately, in the past few months Riley has been through hell and back again. The fears he had to face were fears that even I, at 20 years old, don't think that I could handle with nearly as much composer and confidence and this little boy did. Every time my mom mom gave me an update on how he was doing, I would hear every time about how brave and strong he was being. Riley is only in 6th grade but by looking at his heart and soul, you would never guess. He's inspired me to embrace life and what it has to throw at me, whether it be a bad grade on an exam or an illness, and embrace it with confidence in the idea that things will work out, and with a smile (that kid is always smiling). Its amazing how many people walk in and out of your life that have incredibly inspiring aspects about them that we don't even realize because we don't necessarily take the time to notice them. For me, at least, inspiration is what drives my life. I also believe that every person you meet has something inspiring to offer you. If its there, being offered, and its free, why not accept it? This year and for the rest of my life I want to allow myself to be inspired by as many people as I can.. you should too.  

Jan 28

I love my friends. They're so stinken versatile! If you think about it, having friends is like having every single type of Barbie. They make you happy, you have fun with them, they're there if you're upset and need someone to distract you, they let you draw tattoos on them (sometimes), and you can talk to them. Not to mention, there is always at least one that wants to go work out (Sporty Barbie), run to Target or the mall (Malibu Barbie), help you with homework (Career Barbie), listen to music (Retro Barbie), eat food (Ken), shave (Shaving Ken)... I think you get the picture. But above everything there always seems to be one around when you need one. Coming to college I've made so many new best friends. Some of them I honestly don't know how I've managed without knowing them before meeting them here at Purdue. It always scared me when people told me that its rare to stay friends with the people you hung out with in high school. I always wondered why that was and I came to college determined to never let that happen. I have 5 of the best friends I could have ever asked for from high school that I am still just as close (if not closer) with as I was in high school. My friends Katy, Amy, Debbie, Lauren and Elizabeth saw me through all of high school (two of them have stuck with me since elementary school) which included some of the biggest up and down moments of my life. I just don't see how anyone who was as good of friends as I was with these girls during high school (the most "dramatic" four years of your life), could ever let that friendship die out. I'll admit that it is definitely a challenge. Between the five of them and myself we are at 4 different schools and all have our new and different lives. Its weird to think that the people that they have become best friends with, aren't necessarily people I even know a thing about. We're no longer connected by anyone but ourselves. Between completely different class schedules, work schedules, sorority schedules, project schedules, exam schedules, and daily routines, you can imagine how difficult it can be to figure out a time when a phone or Skype call time works out. The truth is though, I love these girls to the moon and back and I know that no matter how long it takes for us to get ahold of each other or see each other, when we finally do its always as if no time has passed at all. Its the same 'ol same 'ol and I absolutely love it. As always I want to make sure that I try my best to always keep in touch with these girls and never have to tell people that its impossible to stay in touch with your high school friends.

Jan 27

Bah-dah-bah-bah-BAAAAH ...  Mc'ripped off. Let me just point out that the fry box on the left is a medium fry. The one on the right, that my friends, is the new Mighty Kids Meal fry. I think I may be over exaggerating when I say that there were 12 fries in that thing. Poor Carlee. Since I've signed up for the mini, I've been unusually good about my fast-food intake. This was only my second time that I've eaten McDonalds since I've been in training and man, it was so worth getting. Unfortunately I was the one who ordered the medium fry and Carlee's meal was the one that unexpectedly came with the small fry they appears to have gotten hit by a shrink ray. We took this as a sign that we probably should not be eating Micky D's during this time. February 1st is just around the corner (okay its today but we're pretending like I wrote this the right day) and that is when our training is going to be kicked up a notch and the spring break/mini marathon eating habits commence. Starting on the 1st up until spring break, I want to eat as healthy as possible. At least 3 meals a day and healthy snacks in between. And lots of water. This is gonna be stretch so we'll see how long this one lasts...

Jan 26

This is m'snack box. Its endlessly full of all of your sweet tooth's desires. I like to think of if as Mary Poppin's carpet bag.. Only its a box instead of a bag and covered in newspaper instead of carpet. Actually I'm lying about the "sweet tooth's desires" part... Its actually currently full of trail mix, Special K bars and maybe one or two candy kisses. I haven't exactly filled 'er back up since I've been back from winter break. My motivation to make Kam's Snack Box came from a mixture of boredom, an insane about of food scattered in and on my desk, and feeling bad for my clean roommate (aka my fake secret admirer, Clare) having to stare at my food mess 24/7. Remember when I said that I have a problem with getting rid of things? Yeah that goes for boxes too. This was a great way of getting rid of at least one of the ones I racked up last semester. I love arts and crafts and I remember being a really happy camper sitting in my room making this last year. I was looking at my box yesterday and started wondering why in the world I don't get crafty more often. When I'm at home, I'm constantly churning my boredom into creative projects. I like how the keep me busy and I love the outcome (most of the time..). I have decided that next time I go home I'm grabbing my painting supplies and lugging them back to Purdue with me. Its time for me to break my habit of turning to Facebook when I'm bored and do something that isn't a complete waste of my time. I'm going to make a jar full of options of things to occupy my time with when I have nothing to do. If you have any suggestions of things for me to stick in my Jar of Boredom.. please let me know! 

Jan 25

Senior year I got runner up for biggest bed head.. I consider this a proud accomplishment. I had a conversation the other day with some of my friends who went to private schools about school uniforms. I remember freshman year of high school I tried my best to look as primped and stylish as possible pretty much every day of school. This is when looking your best was very important. Sophomore year was the year that I started to experiment with my style. I started throwing together items of clothing that normally ended up looking like what I would imagine a blind person's outfit would look like had they picked out the outfit on their own. Sometimes my outfits looked hip... other/most times, not so much. This is when being an individual was very important. Junior year was when I finally started to settle into my own personal, more calmed down, style. However, I do recall that after two or so weeks into the year, 3 out of the 5 school days I was sporting a sweatshirt or leggings. This is they year when everyone starts to become really lazy. My wardrobe senior year was a whole different animal. My outfit consisted of sweatpants or leggings,  a t-shirt, and a hoodie. Any my infamous hair-do that almost made me win biggest bed head was me rolling out of bed after sleeping with my hair wet (this made it extra curly) and throwing it back into a low bun without being brushed, smoothed out, etc. To help give you a better idea of what this looked like, imagine, if you will, a person with their hair in a bun and then having a pillow fight. And then maybe rubbing a few balloons on their head. This was the year that everyone starts to not give two cakes what anyone thinks about them. Last year I managed to break my obsession with sweatpants and move on to wearing jeans but unfortunately I did a poor job of shedding the t-shirts and hoodies. After doing an unhealthy amount of shopping over Christmas break I told myself that I have to start ditching the sweats and putting my clothes to use. So far I've done a pretty good job and have yet to wear a pair of sweats to class. I'm hoping that I can keep it up for the rest of the semester so that I get in the habit of looking presentable when I go forth into the real world. 

Jan 24

I had a slight freak-out the other day when I was sitting on my futon going through all of my pictures that I have stored on my computer. As I was going through my sophomore year album it dawned on me that I'm halfway through my sophomore year of college.... Wait.. WHAT? It was the weirdest, most uncomfortable epiphany I've had in a long time and it made me just sit and stare into the abyss for a dramatic amount of time (I like being dramatic). Obviously I've known that I am in the middle of my sophomore year but I haven't really had the time to let my mind catch up to that ugly fact. When people say that college goes by fast, they ain't lying. I feel like I just moved into Pi Phi a month ago and it seems like our Amurrica sponto was just last week. Looking back at the 1,082 pictures that I have already snapped throughout this school year (yes... 1,082) is such a bittersweet thing. I'm extremely pleased with how my first semester of my college sophomore year turned out and it made me wonder about after I graduate, if I'll be able to look back at my album titled "College" and be just as pleased with how I spent my time as I am right now with my first semester. The other night I was in an extremely mopey mood but luckily got talked into going out by some of my friends. Theme of the party: paint. It ended up being one of the most memorable nights I've had at college. The way we kept describing it was "the party that you always imagined would be like in college". There was glow in the dark paint everywhere and people from all different houses together jumping up and down dancing all over the place. To make it even more of a classic college party, there were trashcans full of cheap beer that were used not for drinking, but to be shaken up and then sprayed everywhere. I can't think of one person that wasn't having the time of their life or wasn't sporting a full blown grin. This is a picture of my friend Demri "raging in Ray-Bans" (as she kept saying all night), that I took of her during one of our escapes to the bathroom to get 10 minutes of much needed elbow room. 

After my little epiphany I've been telling myself to always remember to make the most of every day that I am here at school. That doesn't mean go out every single night, but its a time that I feel like I need to step out of my comfort zone every now and again and make as many moments as memorable as I can. It is sad to think that almost two years of college have already flown by, but whats awesome is that I still have two entire ones left.

Jan 23

The third week of a new semester is always a weird one because its normally when you awkwardly realize that you're no longer strangers with the people in your classes, unfamiliar with your professors, and can no longer use the beginning of a new semester as an excuse for forgetting assignments and class times. These three weeks are also the fastest flying days of the year. The beginning of them indicates the start of boatloads of fun, and at the end of them comes the biggest rude awakening life has to offer: exams. But not just any exams, the first exams. Terrifying. Not knowing what kind of exam-maker your professor is is an extremely intimidating thing. Theres so many breeds:

 The Foot-noter: pulling questions from all the crap written on the side of the page rather than the actual text.

The Wording A-Hole: takes simple questions and words them in the most complicated form they can possibly think of making the "simple" question, dang near impossible.

The Lecture Leach: this guy loves what he says more than the book. Even though you spend hours doing assigned reading, watch out because the questions are coming from the lectures instead. So if you write slow and you're not an information sponge.... may the force be with you. 

I may be being a little dramatic, but some profs really are a bit cruel with they way they make their exams. I  want to kick my first exams in the b-u-t-t so I can kick off the first quarter of the semester with a solid grade in each class. A marvelous cushion for harder points of the semester. Exams are without a doubt my Achilles heel when it comes to school. I put a large amount of honest effort into studying for them and then have a huge brain fart during the actual test. My mom calls it test anxiety. My first exam is on the 6th and a week from that day is the day that I am going to begin my studying. I want to do whatever I can to score that first A. I've already kick started this with locking in study spots all over campus. The one in this picture is my Pi Phi study spot (one of two), the Trophy Room. I'm making a deal with myself to study at least 2 hours a day reviewing my notes, doing homework, practice problems, whatever and to go to at least one meeting with my TA before an exam to review the material no matter how comfortable I feel about it. If you have any study tips for me please feel free to let me know. I need all the help I can get! 

Jan 22

One of my favorite things ever is getting mail. You would think that it was Christmas morning by how I react to having a letter in my mailbox or my tag up on the package board. Even if its a letter from my bank telling me about new credit card options I still get a huge kick out of having something to open. Theres just something so satisfying about ripping open that paper flap. I do, however, enjoy getting letters much more than pointless bank letters. Ever since I was little I've always had a problem with throwing away any birthday card, post card, thank you note, letter, and note passed to me in school. I just can't do it. I recently hung a bulletin board up in my room that I tack all of my letters I receive on to. I'm a very nostalgic person and for me letters have always been great triggers for memories of things that aren't necessarily significant, but put a smile on your face being reminded them. Contrarily, I do actually really enjoy writing letters as well. Its always nice being able to put something down on paper that you might not necessarily be able to say out loud. Written words always have so much more meaning. When something is written, it's permanent which I think is both intimidating and beautiful. I've decided to invest in envelopes and stamps and start sending out letters. I could easily send an e-mail but you don't get to rip open an e-mail which is just flat out boring. What I really want to do is send a letter at least once every other week. If you want me to send you a letter, send me your address and I will gladly get to work on writing you one. I've definitely committed to a lot of challenges for this year but this one seems very worth while and enjoyable. 

Jan 21

This is my friend Sparkles. Thats right..Sparkles. Isn't she precious? Her name is actually Danielle but the first week that all of us joined Pi Phi she announced one night that if she were a stripper, her name would be Sparkles. It stuck. What makes it even better is that she is the littlest nugget you'll ever meet. This semester I'm honored to call her my roommate. She truly has a one-of-a-kind personality that never fails to entertain me. We got ourselves laughing to the point of stomach aches when three packages arrived for her from her home in California. She lugged the fist one up to our room and I immediately rushed over to the futon to watch her open it up. I've found get just as much enjoyment out of watching other people open packages as I do when I get them myself.. As soon as the intensely taped box was ripped open, I immediately lost my marbles when I saw what was inside. It was packed to the brim with every kind of goodie you could ever imagine from Beef Jerky to AirHeads (three XL baggies of them), all for little Sparks. And when I say that this girl barely eats, I mean she barely eats so this box of edible greatness gave me quite a good laugh. As if that wasn't enough, she left and came back up with two more boxes. Sure enough these boxes contained just as many food treasures as the first which only caused me to laugh even harder. Between giggles she told me that it was all from her mom who she had told to "not send a lot of food". I wish I could have seen what too much food was... The case of the giggles that I got from Sparkles and her three boxes managed to make my day extremely enjoyable. I love having a good story to tell people that makes them smile or laugh because no matter how many times I tell it, I get almost as much of enjoyment out of it as I did when it actually happened. Its amazing how one thing can completely change your mood or determine the outlook you have on your day. A couple of my goals that I have already set for this year have a lot to do with realizing my happiness and finding the best in every day and I think that by finding one moment of genuine happiness in a day is enough to help make realizing those other goals even easier. If you can find one thing each week that makes you grin or chuckle just by thinking about it, so many moments of your day could be more enjoyable. Right now I feel like this sounds pretty easy, but just as I usually am, I'll probably end up being surprised by how challenging it may be. 

Jan 20

I know, I know. I'm the worst. I'm hardly one month in and I'm already three full days behind! I promise it hasn't been due to my laziness. Its because of these three evil beings in this photo. Say hello to Physics, Chemistry, and Calculus... my three hurdles for the next 4 months. For those of you who don't already know, I am a student at Purdue University studying Spanish and Geology. Thank goodness I have my one Spanish class this semester to fluff my GPA because Lord knows it ain't gonna be pretty since I'm taking these classes. After a pretty rough and eye opening past semester, I've come to the conclusion that I need to face one of my biggest fears in order to succeed in this one: ask for help. Why this is such a difficult thing for me to do? I know not. I'm one of those irritating people that likes to think that I can always figure things out all on my own even though it would just make things 50X easier if I would ask someone for a little assistance. I've found that the absolute worst thing that you could possibly let yourself do in college is get behind. So much material is covered in such little time and before you know it you have an exam in 3 days. Tomorrow I am going to my first office hours meeting (eep!) with my calculus TA. I think the reason I get so nervous is because I feel like all of the questions that I have are ones that are going to make me look dumb. Don't worry, I've already done the deed of slapping myself on the wrist and telling myself that I'm going to look even MORE dumb by not knowing the material because I didn't ask. I have absolutely no excuse to not be successful this semester with all that I have to my disposal. I lucked out with all of my professors (not a single one with a foreign accent), Purdue provides SI which are student lead tutoring classes, office hours, and study hours with the TAs. And on top of all that, my parents have offered to get me a tutor if those things don't work out. Although it is a huge challenge for me, I am beyond passionate about my field of study. Its time for me to suck it up and ask every question I have. Mark my words, I'm going to kick this semester in the butt. 

Jan 19

Less than a week after Carlee and I had gone running outside in shorts and t-shirts, West Lafayette got slammed with about 4 inches of snow. If you weren't already aware, Indiana weather is bogus. As odd as it was being able to sit outside on the patio after a run and be sweating in January, it was really nice. And as much as I love snow, it's not easy jumping from mid 50 degree weather to 9 degrees in a matter of days. I think the sky is PMSing. As big of a damper as the snow and freezing cold weather puts on my daily routines like walking to class and working out (I love being able to say that now), its snow and it is pretty and as much as I hate it, I love it. Instead of dwelling on all of the suckiness that is brought in with the snow, I've been trying really hard to look at the bright side of it. I get to wear my awesome new hats (I love my hats), can go sledding, classes are 10X more likely to get cancelled, campus looks gorgeous, Cook Lisa makes afternoon hot chocolate, I can do my homework by the fireplace, etc. Even though I am normally quite good at getting myself to see good in awful situations, that skill always seems to weaken in the winter. Last year I had a blog that I started right after Christmas break in which I posted one good thing that happened every single day. It really helped me stay sane and realize that even the worst days have a little good in them. I am hoping that I can manage to find some good in every bad situation or day this semester as well. Todays resolution: look at the glass half full.

Jan 18

I love surprises. The good kind, at least. My favorite part about surprises is that they don't always come from your family and friends. You can be surprised by your enemies, your science teacher, and that girl in the blue shirt passing you on the sidewalk. To me, there is absolutely no better feeling than the feeling you get from someone surprising you with a random act of kindness. Its a beautiful thing to be reminded that there are people who care about you. Now don't get me wrong, of course I know that my family and friends love me and would do just about anything for me; but it just feels so dang good to actually witness love with your own eyes. I see this same thing with God. Even though I have complete faith in the fact that His love is everywhere everyday, actually witnessing one of his miracles recharges that faith. We all need these little recharges in life every now and again. Something as silly as coming home to an unexpected Twinkie from my fake secret admirer (aka my good friend Clare) can give you that little recharge. After thinking about how much joy these random acts of kindness bring into my life, I found myself wondering if I do enough to remind people that I care about them. Thus my next resolution for the year was born. I challenge not only myself but anyone who reads this to take time to remind someone that they are important, thought about, loved, noticed, etc. at least once a day. I think everyone can agree that dishing out these gifts of little acts of kindness feel just as good as receiving them so don't sit around waiting for one and get up and hand one out yourself. Say "hi!" to a stranger, hug your friend just because you can, put a Twinkie on someones desk. As little as your surprise may be, the result could be enormous. 

Jan 17

Resolution for the WEEK: put my sheets on my bed....

I've been here for two full weeks and I have yet to do this. Yup, I know. I'm disgusting. 

Jan 16

For Christmas, my dad got my brother and sisters and I each a Kindle Fire. If you haven't seen one before, they're like smaller versions of an iPad but their main use is for downloading and reading books from it. Mine has become my new baby. Its perfect for me because at my sorority house I sleep in cold-air which is basically a giant room with a bunch of bunk beds. It's always freezing and always pitch black in there and also the bedroom of about 80 girls so you can't exactly turn on a light to read. At home I love snuggling up in bed with a good book and reading until my eyes start to get heavy and it has been a bummer not being able to do that here. But now thanks to my new toy, I can read again!! Since I've come to college I've really slacked on reading and I am hoping that by having my Kindle I'll really start picking it up again. Right now I am currently reading an awesome book called The Happiness Project. I highly suggest you pick it up if you're looking for a new read. My goal is to have the whole Harry Potter series read by the end of this year. I feel like I bring shame to my generation for only having read two of them. 

Jan 15

The challenge for January 15th for the phone photo challenge that I am doing was "in your purse". While Carlee and I were waiting on our food at Noodles (after we had worked out.. we're on a roll) I dumped all of the contents in my purse out onto the table and instantly realized how much junk I have. I know it really doesn't look all that bad in this picture, but I left out all of trash and crap residing on the bottom of my itsy bitsy blue bag. Trust me, all of this stuff should not physically be able to all fit in this purse. To be honest, I'm a little bit of a hoarder. I hate parting with items more than anything and I'm not just talking about stuffed animals and old t-shirts, but also things like receipts. Its bad. I manage to connect a memory or potential use to every candy wrapper, doodle, and free coupon book that I have stuffed in my desk drawers. It's honestly disgusting how much junk I have. As much as I love being able to find such a personal connection with every single thing in the entire world, I would love even more to be more organized. Especially this semester since I am taking all evil classes. I need to go through my desk as well as my bedroom at home and clear out all of the unnecessary items residing in my drawers. It makes me so sad getting rid of things but if its a good enough memory, I shouldn't need something like a chewed on pen cap to remind me of it. Let the cleaning commence! 

Jan 14

It weird to think that I almost didn't go through rush. If I had chosen not to, my life would be so completely different than it is right now. I never would have met this group of totally awesome girls that are in my pledge class who have all become some of my best friends. Also, I probably wouldn't have as strong of abs because God knows nothing makes me laugh harder than them. Its definitely a battle living in a house with 80 girls but I figure when else am I ever going to have the opportunity to live in a house full of my best friends. Even though being in a sorority can make you want to rip your hair out, I wouldn't go back and change my decision to be in one here for the world. I can't believe that I'm already half way through my sophomore year of college and knowing that I only have about two more years with these girls makes me so sad. This year, I want to make sure that I take complete advantage of living in this house with these girls and recognize all of the good in it. I already know these next few years are going to fly by even faster than the first and I want to have as many things as I can to look back on and smile about. 

Jan 13

For the past six months or so I have been telling people that I am going to chop my hair off and get a pixie cut. I was supposed to come back with it all cut off after Christmas break but I sissied out and didn't do it. It's not that I'm even that attached to my hair. In fact, I complain about it all the time. Its just the longest its ever been and I'm so close to reaching what my goal length was when I was a senior in high school. I also came back over break and had all my friends gushing about how much they loved my hair so that didn't help boost my interest in cutting it.. I have decided that at some point this year, I am going to cut it off. Whether it be next week or in three months, it doesn't matter as long as its gone at some point! I love stepping out of my comfort zone but this will definitely be a challenge.

Jan 12

We have a human alarm system in my sorority house that we call wake. The freshman have to take turns spending the night at the house and waking girls up in our cold dorm between 6:00-7:30 am. Its a little bit of a pain in the butt but it's a lot nicer than having a million alarm clocks going off at the butt crack of dawn. This night my little had to spend the night so that I could get up with her and teach her how to do wake. On the nights before you have wake, you are not allowed to go out. Even though everyone was going out and having fun since its syllabus week, my little, Paige, my friend Carlee (also her big) and I ended up having a pretty swell time staying in together. We goofed off and caught up about our winter breaks and just had a grand old time together. Often times when I stay in for the night, I end up sitting on my futon or going to bed early. Even though its nice to have nights like that every now and then, I really need to start taking more advantage of the nights that I don't go out whether that means studying or doing something random with a friend.

Jan 11

This is my friend Peej and she is the person that I tend to do the most random and bizarre things with the most. I'm sure you couldn't guess that at all from this picture... Last night she came up with the brilliant idea to tape our faces and get on chat roulette. If you don't know what chat roulette is, its essentially a website where you are randomly paired up with someone around the world to talk to or see with a webcam. You see some pretty interesting things on there to say the least. We spent about 20 minutes deforming each others faces with scotch tape and had to stop every ten seconds to look away from each other, laugh and hold our faces so our tape wouldn't pop off. We thought it would be most funny if we just sat and stared at people without saying anything, just looking ridiculous. Boy were we right. We laughed so hard that we could have peed our pants. I think life should be more full of random acts of goofiness like this one. I came so close to passing up Peej's idea because I was worried about missing the One Tree Hill season premiere (embarrassing I know), but I agreed to do it anyway. I can't think of a time in my life that a random spur-of-the-moment idea hasn't become either a great decision or a great memory and I want to be sure that this year I don't pass any of them up.  

Jan 10

It's syllabus week which means fun, fun and more fun. And also a spankin' big book fee. I've had such a great time already in the short time that I've been back to school and it's hard to remember sometimes that I have to start studying again.. This semester I am taking all classes that even asians find difficult. Physics, chemistry and calculus. I know you wish you were me. Because my classes are going to be so hard, I'm determined to bring my A-game and stay on top of everything as much as I possibly can. I've done a pretty good job so far of writing down what I need to do, getting my supplies and coming up with game plans for these classes and I really want to continue it. Theres nothing worse than being completely clueless about having an assignment and finding out about it the day that its due. That isn't gonna happen this year. My newest resolution for the year is to write in my assignment notebook every day and LOOK at it. Lemme tell ya, this is so much harder than it sounds.

Jan 9

Carlee and I went on our first run! If you didn't see my other post about my biggie new years resolutions,  running the mini marathon is one of them. And for those of you who are like me before I signed up and do not know how many miles are in a "mini" marathon, its 13. I can hardly run ONE without feeling like my legs and lungs are going to fall off. My body made it very clear yesterday on our little 20 minute run that if I want to do this I'm going to have to be serious about this whole training thing. Rats. I figured what better way to represent my resolution to run and train than a picture of my pair of running shoes! Lucky for me these suckers actually give me a boost of motivation to run because I love wearing them so much. I'll be sure to sneak in some updates on how our training is going through out the months. Even though it seems completely impossible right now, I can't wait till I can get on here and write about surviving running 4 miles. 

Jan 8

Today's resolution... learn to pack less for college.

Jan 7

This year, I am going to paint more. My last night home could not have been spent any better than it was. After moping about my plans to get together with a big group of friends to have one last hooray fell through, I immediately perked up when one of my favorite people in the world, my good friend Elizabeth, texted me asking me to come over and paint with her. I have an abandoned art studio in my room that depresses and inspires me every time I look at it. I used to paint pretty frequently but I slowly stopped doing it and for the longest time I have been trying to get myself to pick it up again. There is no better feeling in the world than sitting in front of a canvas with music playing and a paintbrush in your hand. How could you not be happy when you're surrounded by every color under the rainbow? Elizabeth and I sat and painted, laughed and talked until 2 in the morning. It was such a genuine moment and I was so happy. Elizabeth said that a good friend of hers told her that painting is good for the soul. I couldn't agree more. 

Jan 6

This is actually a picture that I took on my iPhone. I amazes me how good of pictures that dinkey little camera lens can take sometimes. I took this on my way to meet my good friend Elizabeth at Panera for her lunch break. I actually took it for another photo challenge that I am doing for a camera app on my phone called Instagram which is sort of like a massive picture blog on your phone. There is a different challenge for each day and today's was "something that makes you smile". It was really fun because I was very contentious all morning of every thing that made me grin and asking myself if it was photo worthy. The one thing that really seemed to make my heart smile was this moment when I was in my car driving to meet one of my best friends on an absolutely gorgeous day (57 in January.. not normal) and the most perfect song popped on the radio. Don't you love when that happens?! I was grinning from ear to ear during the entire song as I drove down the road singing and blasting the song as loud as it would go. I was so content. The thing is, I don't think I would have enjoyed this moment the same way if I hadn't been looking for reasons to smile. Did you know that just by smiling you become happier? You could be in the worst mood ever but if you turn your frown upside down just for a few seconds you can actually feel better! I love that. This made me realize that I need to start looking for reasons to smile more in my life. There are so many moments every day that I don't even recognize how happy I am. I don't want to spend my life looking back and thinking "wow, I was so much happier than I realized". I want to recognize my happiness in the moment. So resolution #6: find as many things as I can that make me smile every day.

Jan 5

This is my cell phone. I had to give up my cell phone today for almost a whole day which for a kid from my generation, is a huge sacrifice. My dad took it with him this morning to get it fixed at the apple store because for some reason it decided to mute every person on the other line of my phone calls. While I expected to be having withdrawals all day from being phone-less, it actually turned out to be quite nice. It was almost a relief not having it on me. I even waited a whole hour to go down and get my phone back after my dad had gotten home with it. Even though it doesn't exactly make for an exciting picture, I immediately decided that I need to work on breaking away from my phone. This is probably going to be a lot harder than I think it will be, especially since my phone is packed with games, twitter, e-mail, texting, yadda, yadda, yadda. Even out at dinner tonight with my family I made sure not to touch my phone once. It's makes time so much more enjoyable being able to have entire conversations and not have them being cut off by stopping to look at a text message. I honestly found it a little disturbing how much time I spend on my phone and I find myself wondering how my days would be different if I didn't have it strapped onto me 24/7. I'll let you know how it turns out.