Bak 2 skul

Golly! I'm back finally!
After the ropes course I went to Arkansas (Conway to be exact) with Skronky to help Skronky's bosses move (I'll call them Jack and Jill, just for shortness sake... They both worked with him and are married which confused the heck out of me at first) there from 'round here. I mostly just helped entertain their daughter L who is around four years old and just hilarious, as most kids are at that age. (Honestly, she's the kid who is most like a 22yo me in 4yo child form that I've ever met... Good or bad, we're a lot alike) Did you know that even though you can get 6 point beer in wet counties of Arkansas you cannot buy any at all on Sundays? And that there are dry counties there?? And that Conway is not in Conway County? How strange is that?? Though everyone on our trip was nice and polite it was a very, very frustrating three days for me due to a lack of control over anything. I got to pick when I went to the bathroom and what I wore each day but that's really about it. Everything else was pretty much not up to me which is/was maddening when you consider how much control I have, or feel I have anyway, over my life each day. Good times.
Right after we got back I had to get started on Pharm Orientation stuff. Copied off frat handouts, stuffed folders, hung white coats, and general organization. Then came the P1s. Nice to have a new set of faces around but it's going to take a while to learn all the names. I even got to help with several portions of their orientation, including making a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich per their EXACT directions. It was hard acting stupid and taking the directions for exactly what they said. (Like when they told me to take out 2 pieces of bread I ripped open the bag sending most of the bread flying across the room. Two remained so I took those out and waited for my next order.)
This last Saturday night/Sunday morning there was torrential rain and high winds in my hometown, with flooding in the town just 20 miles north. The power at my parent's house even went out for several hours! Things are back to normal at our house by now, of course, but do pray for those who lost so much to the flooding. From what I saw the rebuilding and cleanup will take months...
School started back up Monday. Dork began at my college alma mater after moving in to the dorms; Seems like he had a good week. My classes aren't easy but should be slightly less difficult than my first semester at pharm college. Am currently gearing up for Rush in less than a month so happy thoughts toward me retaining my sanity!
Well, I'm off... Happy weekend!

Back from the Ropes!

It's late and I'm headed off to bed... But I just had to share a blip about how much fun I just had at my college's Executive Council Leadership Retreat. We did the ropes course at Camp Loughridge in Tulsa - It was absolutely a blast! Even the cheesy parts weren't too terrible. We pushed ourselves, got better acquainted with each other, and sweated like sweaty pigs in the middle of a heat wave all in the name of such worthy terms as "teamwork", "communication", and "committedness". If you've never done a ropes course I highly recommend you take the next opportunity and run with it. SO. MUCH. FUN!
And that I'm really sore today just proves it! Ha!
More of an update later, I need sleep!

Life can be scary

Ever been walking along, high on life, enjoying being so totally awesome that it would be sickening if you weren't so into it when all of a sudden, out of the blue, and completely by surprise you get hit upside the head, step in It ankle-deep, and are thrown totally into a situation you can't handle, don't understand, and that scares you silly???
Yeah, me neither.
But sometimes at work I get a call that is just a little bewildering, that tosses me off guard, and makes me a little frightened for that person because I know if that were me in that situation, well, it wouldn't be a pretty sight. It's easy to show a tough, strong exterior to the world when you know it all and can hide behind books but real life is so much more complicated and deep.
This life thing is crazy, huh?

Week(s) in Review

Hello to a new month!
Lots to report on since my last post so long ago... (I'm a bad blogger if you can't tell.)
I think I've pretty much finished that pinata game I've been addicted to this summer. I got all 50 achievements and added 1000 points to my brother's gamer score on the xbox so woohoo for geekdom! (I think there are nefarious plans in the works to start me over on the other box to up the score there too for my dad's... haha) I find it pretty funny how goal-oriented I can be on games like that but how many works-in-progress I'll start in real life without finishing in a timely manner. (Remember my 3 years of working sporadically on that t-shirt quilt??) I currently have several projects up in the air....
Including a t-shirt quilt for Skronky. Before you gasp and call me nuts to start another one right away... His only has shirt blocks on one side with flannel for the back and no middle pieces, since he wanted it to be light (Boy, it is light too... Rather worries me how light it is... not really a blanket so much as heavy sheet weight). Plus his blocks are larger than mine were so I didn't even have to tie it as much. (Did you notice that past tense??!? Yay!) I'm almost done with his, anyway, just have to bind it once I find a store that has another of the binding I did on mine; I have most of a pack of the binding I need but need another full one since mine took one and a bit so his should need one and a half or so. Then, though I have stuff already started, I want to do up a 4 piece set of appliqued dishtowels for that boyfriend of mine just to see if I can handle appliqueing. Guess we'll see... Not much time left before school starts back again.
Baked up at least another 5 or so apple crisps... We still have apples left! No one else at my house likes muffins or I'd try a recipe I found for apple raisin muffins that sounds delicious to me. I'm getting a bit sick of apple crisp so I'm going to have to find something else to make with these green, tarty apples. (I might just try the muffins anyway and eat them all myself. It's a thought anyway)
Enjoyed the Natural History Museum near campus with Skronky, his sis, her baby, and more of her crew last weekend. Skronky's nephew obviously didn't really understand what any of the exhibits were but he was his normal happy self so it was fun to see how he reacted to the new sights. They have a big statue, bronze maybe, of a wooly mammoth attacking/being hunted by a primitive man, a woman, baby, and wolf-dog next to him. Skronky's nephew loved the wolf-dog and when we sat him on it he laughed as his dad snapped a picture! Such a hoot.
The next day we, Skronky and I, joined a few of my classmates to celebrate a birthday at the Mont. Caught up some on summer gossip and news. Not ready to head back to class quite yet but seeing my friends was a nice way to ease back into the pharmacy college mindset. Speaking of which, I recently had a planning meeting for the P1's Orientation. Looks like it should be fun if we can figure out where to have the All-School Picnic, the finale of Orientation. We've already tried the Library where we were promptly turned away as they claim to already be booked for that Friday at noon (I have my doubts... They probably just heard how wild and crazy the pharm college faculty are and didn't want such hooligans around, right?) So if anyone has a suggestion for a site on campus, near the Pharm college, with lots of shade, that might be available, please, please let me know! (For those who know campus, we're currently looking into using the pavilion between Nursing and the Apartments. Fingers crossed that works out.)
Yesterday I joined 9 of my Kappa Psi brothers to work on a house with Habitat for Humanity at their newest build community Hope Crossing! The home we were working on is almost finished so we did touch-up painting, window sealing, and hardcore cleaning to get it ready to be carpeted this weekend, followed by sod/landscaping outside, for a family to move in as soon as next weekend! The really neat part of volunteering with Habitat is working with families who are putting in hours toward their own homes someday so they think about things like, "How would I want that in my house", so they do a great job because they're interjecting themselves into each project. ("Sweat equity" is a big part of the Habitat program. If you don't know much about the program I encourage you to check it out - What they're accomplishing even just in Oklahoma is great!) Of course, you get the occasional court-mandated community service people who just want to put in their time without really caring how it looks but hopefully those are few and far between (personally, I would much rather help H4H build a house than pick up trash at the side of the road. Maybe that's just me?)
Everyone have a great weekend!! Woohoo!!!