Being busy and other excuses.

I haven't written in a blog post in the longest time. I didn't think to look at the actual date of my last post, but it was probably late August/Early September. Woops. I'm really sorry about that. I have come up with multiple excuses for this hiatus:

1. My dog ate my laptop (except not really).
2. I lost my laptop (also not really).
3. My laptop broke (TRUE).
4. School is crazy (kind of).
5. I forgot (also true).

So I don't know if you noticed that I said my laptop broke. It did. Worst experience. I was at work at the Information Desk, where all I do is use my laptop to do homework (which actually means browse the internet) and listen to music on either Pandora or Spotify. The day my laptop died, I was listening to music on Pandora. Whenever someone comes up the window, I'm supposed to pause my music so I can talk to them. So, someone came up to the window and I paused my music. When they walked away, I hit the space bar to resume my music listening. I guess my computer wasn't feelin' that idea, because it decided to give me the pinwheel. The awful, awful pinwheel. This happened a lot, so I just turned off my computer, per usual, and turned it back on. Except it didn't turn back on. I started to get a bit concerned, but I figured it was just being difficult. So, I turned it off and back on again, and again, and again, and again. Each time yielded the same result. I freaked out. I emailed my coworkers and boss and asked if someone could come cover the last hour of my shift so I could take my computer to the IT department at the school. My supervisor sent someone down and I ran across the street from the Union to the IT building. I sat there for two hours, skipped my photo class and missed the critique (which cost me 5 points on the project that I turned in that day. Boo. I would have gotten a 95 on it), and they didn't even fix my computer. They just told me I had to order some mystery cable off Amazon. I couldn't find the cable on Amazon, so I asked Reddit. They advised me to take it to the local Apple Store to see what they could do about it, being professionals and all. There was a problem with that, though. I got my computer in June of 2010, and though I got Apple Care, I was quite positive it only added an extra year to my warranty, which would mean it would have expired. I decided it wouldn't hurt to reinforce that theory, so before making an appointment at the Genius Bar, I looked up my Apple Care status online. Guess what? My Apple Care doesn't expire until June of 2013! Thank you Steve Jobs, you wonderful man. Oh, did I mention that the iPhone 5 was released the day after my computer broke? I had to wait until the day after that to get an appointment at the Genius Bar. So I make my way to the Tucson Apple Store, which is in North Bufu. The place was a mad house. It was awful. When I got to the Genius Bar and started my appointment, the Genius, I guess is his proper title, ran about a million different tests and came to the conclusion that my hard drive had bit the big one and I couldn't save it. I needed a new one. With labor included, it would cost $400. Luckily, Apple Care covered every penny. So, I have a brand spanking new hard drive, and to celebrate I bought the newest operating system to go with it. My computer is running like a champ and hopefully will continue to do so for a few more years.

This is going to be the longest blog post in existence. I guess that's what I get for not writing anything for two months. 

I also mentioned that school is crazy, kind of. It's not so much crazy as just stressful. I changed my major from Studio Art back to Psychology and changed my minor from Psychology to Art Education. I think I'm finally where I want to be. For real this time. I also learned that I can graduate a semester early, which is great considering I failed my first semester of Freshman year and I've changed my major about twenty billion times. If all goes according to plan, I will be graduating in December of 2013! I also am starting to look into post-graduation plans. I want to go back to New Hampshire, so very badly.  I also think attending graduate school might be a good idea. I've thought about doing Interior Design, Psychology, Education, Special Education, and Art. However, a few people have mentioned Art Therapy to me. So, I googled it. Two Universities in Massachusetts offer accredited Art Therapy Master's Programs! I got information from both schools and hopefully will go visit the campuses this summer. The future is so near and it is so exciting. 

In other news, I went back to work at Safe Ride, and I am so glad. It is seriously the best campus job, maybe even just the best job, I've ever had. Even though most of the people I worked with last year either graduated on left, it's still great. 

I also got a job as an Abnormal Psychology tutor. It's kind of tough, but I also really enjoy it. I get to share my knowledge with someone who wants it, even needs, and really appreciates it. It's really awesome. 

Let's see, what else, what else. I finish my photo class on Tuesday and I am extremely sad about it. Because I'm no longer an art major, I can't take any further photo classes, from what I understand. I guess that means I'll be taking them at the community college and I'll just take the rest of the 100 level art classes UA offers to fulfill my requirements for the Art Therapy Master's (the requirements are the same at any school, so the pre-reqs won't affect which school I choose!). I start a sculpture class on Thursday and a painting class next Monday. I'm pretty excited for painting, since that's my medium of choice. The sculpture class scares me a little. I'm not good at it, at all, in any way. We'll see how it goes. 

In other other news, I've been pretty successful at my whole getting healthy thing. I'm eating a lot better and exercising on the regs. It's pretty great. I feel pretty great, well, aside from having the worst allergies/cold/sinus infection I've had in a while for the past two weeks. It's clearing up, though. Thank goodness because, unfortunately, my eyes react pretty badly when I have allergies and I can't wear my contacts, so I've been wearing my dopey glasses for a few days and hating every minute of it.

It's officially (I should technically) fall. It definitely doesn't feel like it, however. It was probably at least 90 today. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 92. The coldest day this week: 78. That's still hot. I just want to be able to wear sweaters and boots. Even when I don't try to look cute in fall/winter, I do anyway, because I have a huge/adorable sweater collection. Also, I have a wide array of fall shoes. And some awesome pairs of tights. GIVE ME COLD WEATHER. 50 DEGREES, AT LEAST. COME ON. I hate summer. I have a perpetual sub burn and I'm pretty done with that. 

Alright, I seriously need to wrap this up. I get off work in 20 minutes and this is probably the longest blog post in history. Sorry to bore you all to tears. I hope everyone had a great weekend and that you have an even better week!

Lata'. 

All Snails Considered. Or something like that.

I have too many blogs. This one, tumblr, my food blog. I'm thinking I should just combine them. Andrew and I were brainstorming names for it and came up with All Snails Considered and Snail Things Considered. I'm not sure which I'll use, if I even choose to combine my blogs into one blog. I'll let you know if and when that happens.

Speaking of my other blog, the food one, there's a new post on there! You can find it here. It's about this soup recipe I found on Pinterest, which I made this evening. It was pretty good. It was kind of bland since it was mostly beans. I think I'll add some other stuff to it the next time I make it to add some more flavor. Maybe some chicken sausage or ground turkey or something. Or cheese. More cheese, anyway. You can never have enough cheese...even if you're lactose intolerant.

Stay tuned for a new combo blog and maybe some other stuff. The weekend's almost over, spend the last day doing fun/relaxing/good stuff.

Peace out.

I'm not sure what to call this one.

I just realized I never put up pictures of what my house looks like now, now that it's full of furniture and not boxes. It's so wonderful and homey and great. I think I fall in love with it more every day.

I started another blog. It's a food blog and you can find it on my page that includes other social media things I subscribe to. I hope you guys like it. It's all about being a college student and trying to eat awesome food that's easy to make and easy to buy. I definitely know all about that.

I whine a lot, but it's my blog and I'll do what I want. I follow a few other blogs that have many more followers than I do. It's just a number and who cares how many people read this, but it kind of makes me sad. I don't know if it's because I'm not as interesting as them or what. It makes me worry that most of these posts are just me talking to myself. I like to think someone is reading them and enjoying them as much as I am.

I think this blog is really lacking direction, and I'm not sure what to do about that. I don't know what to make this blog about. I don't know if people are interested in what I'm wearing, watching, reading, or creating. I really don't know. If my readers wanted to give me feedback, I guess that would be good.

This post is all over the place, but so am I, so you're just experiencing me as I am most of the time. I recently started running and working out every day. The other day though, on my first run, I tripped over some construction stuff on campus and fell on the sidewalk. It was super embarrassing. I cut open my left arm, scraped my elbow, my shoulder, and my knee and ankle, and my face; I have a really attractive bruise on my cheek. I can't even believe I did that. I feel and look like an idiot. The next day I didn't fall or do anything stupid, so I don't feel so bad anymore. Anyway, my ambition behind doing this is not necessarily to lose weight or inches or whatever. I just want to be healthy. I want to feel good. So, I'm taking care of myself and eating better. So far so good. I have lost some weight, which I won't be complaining about anytime soon.

I'm not sure what else to write about. I meant it when I asked you guys, the readers, to give some input. What do you want to see, hear, read, whatever?

Good night.

Long time no blog.

I haven't written a blog post in nearly a month. I don't have a particularly good excuse for this, besides laziness and possible busy-ness. It's now the second month of the school, the third week, and I'm finally getting in to the swing of things.

This is my first semester ever taking art classes. I have to take all the foundation courses, which are basically every medium 101 (for example, there's one for drawing, painting, sculpture, and photography). Most of the students in those classes are freshman, with age ranges from 16-19. Yeah, there's a sixteen-year-old in my photo class. I don't feel old or super behind or anything. I'm the oldest person besides the teacher in these classes. Anyway, these classes are only half a semester long, so in total I was taking four of them this semester. I have to take six before I can move on to the real classes. I am now taking three this semester and I will take the other three next semester. I'll explain why I dropped one. I dropped the drawing class. Not because I hate drawing still lifes (that's actually the plural of still life and I do hate them). My teacher was 1.) a bro and 2.) listened to the most awful dubstep during class. How am I supposed to create art when I have to listen to dubstep? Besides that, he wasn't the best teacher. I wasn't sure what he wanted me to accomplish from the assignments and didn't really give a lot of feedback. So I dropped the class and will take it next semester, ideally with a different teacher.

The other foundation class that I'm currently in is awesome, though. It's the photography one and it's super fun and wonderful. We had our first critique of our first assignment yesterday, which I was super nervous about. I was feeling confident about my work until I saw everyone else's and saw mine up on a wall from a distance. There were some seriously cool pieces. We had to make collages of a special place; I'll post a photo of mine when I get it back from my teacher. Anyway, when we finally got to mine during the critique, people actually had almost entirely good things to say about it, including my teacher! There were definitely people who did better than me, but there also were people who didn't do as well as the rest of us. I'm feeling much more confident about my photography abilities. Our next assignment is to make a pin hole camera and take a series of photos about an alternate universe. It's going to be really cool and I have a few ideas that I definitely need to start working them out on paper.

I've realized that this blog post is definitely very rambling, but I feel like I need to talk about EVERYTHING I've done in the last three weeks or however long it's been since I last wrote a post. So I shall continue.

I got a new job the week before school started. I miss Safe Ride, no doubt about it. I had a lot of fun there and had some amazing coworkers. The schedule was killing me though. There was no way I could have continued working until 1:00 AM and still get my act together in the morning before school.  My new job has a great schedule and I can do my homework or watch TV or movies and listen to music while I'm there. I work at the Information Desk so I'm still helping my fellow students, just in a different way. It's really nice and I definitely am enjoying it. It's also pretty cool being able to just come home after school instead of work. It's nice to have the evening to unwind and relax.

So school is going really well so far. Even so, I can't wait until Christmas so I can go back to New Hampshire. I'm definitely missing it a lot. I'm feeling very homesick lately. It's tough being so close to being able to move back permanently, yet still being so far. I'm eagerly awaiting the day I can move back home, for good.

Sorry again for the super long, super boring blog post. I'll do my absolute best to post more often and post more interesting things. I hope everyone else is having a good time at school or work, and as always have a beautiful day.

I'm baaaaaaack.

I don't think I've written a blog post in about two weeks. Sorry about that. Life has been pretty exciting and hectic, and it's continuing to be that way still. Andrew came to New Hampshire to meet my family and we did many fun things, such as mini golf, going to the beach, going to the coast in Massachusetts, and Canobie Lake Park. I have some pictures of said fun things. My family really liked him, which is super exciting and wonderful. It was so great.

It didn't end as well as it could have, however. We were scheduled to fly out of Manchester on Friday afternoon. The weather was iffy, and our plane showed up late and our flights kept getting delayed. We fly Southwest, so when we were lining up to board the plane, a lady came over the loud speaker and said, "If you're continuing on to Chicago and then Tucson do not get on that plane because it is no longer going either of those places." Our flight was supposed to stop in Baltimore and then continue to Chicago where we would change planes and fly to Tucson. Our flight from Baltimore to Chicago was cancelled as was our flight from Chicago to Tucson. So we got another flight for the next day. There were zero flights from Manchester to Tucson and zero from Boston to Tucson, but there was one flight from Manchester to Phoenix, with only four seats on it. So I snagged that, otherwise we might still be in New Hampshire (not like that's a bad thing). My grandparents picked us up from the airport, where we had spent FIVE HOURS for no reason. That was fun. Not. We got another night in New Hampshire, which was nice, but also made leaving the next day so much harder than it already is. Now we're back in Tucson and getting ourselves prepared for school to start a week from today.

You know how I moved in to my new house almost a month ago? Well,  I did. I never got to stay there though, before I left for New Hampshire. Yesterday was the first day I spent in my house, which is still amazing. It doesn't even feel real (that's the silliest thing to say about a house but I do not even care). It feels like I don't really live here and I'll have to leave or something. But I do live here! Breanne and I are still in the (very long and horrible) process of unpacking all of our stuff and finding places for said stuff. This is proving a bit more difficult than expected because our walls are 1. plaster and 2. eight million feet high so it's nearly impossible to hang stuff on them. We've managed to hang some stuff at fairly reasonable heights (i.e. heights that short people can reach on a stool). I still have a few things to hang and find places for, but it's all coming together quite nicely. It's a wonderful little place. I really love it.

That's what I've been doing lately! Quite hectic, but exciting as well. As I said, school starts a week from today. I'm excited to start my art classes. We'll see how they go, I'm sure you'll hear all about it on here. Now enjoy some photos of New Hampshire! Pictures of the house will follow when it doesn't look like a war zone (when we've put everything away and cleaned up).

Have a happy Monday!

Gloucester, MA. 

The Quarry at Halibut Point in Gloucester. 

Halibut Point

The woods across the street from my house.

Looking at the swamp and beaver dams across the street. 

Catching up.

I was going to post a picture of fruit (Day 7 of the photo challenge) yesterday. However, we didn't go to the grocery store until today. So we have some fruit. I really don't see the point in taking a picture of fruit, but I took a picture of some bananas and peaches, mostly because peaches look like funny butts. So here's a picture of some funny butt peaches.

I also took a picture of a bad habit (Day 8). So here's that.

I don't untie my shoes when I take them off. I don't know if most people would consider this a bad habit, but I clearly do. It makes putting on my shoes a pain. You'd think I'd learn to untie my shoes. Nope. Bad habit.

In order to catch up with this photo challenge, I'm going to start doing two photos a day until I'm where I should be.

Speaking of catching up, I also have to catch up on school work. Can I just say that I hate everything about online classes? They are awful. I don't think I'll ever take one again. I hate them. SO MUCH.

Also, Andrew will be here in four days! Exciting exciting.

That's all I have to say about that.

Day 6 of the photo challenge.

I know, I know. I'm super behind on this. My cousin is also doing it and is a few days ahead of me. I'm pretty sure she started it a week after me. Woops. Anyway, Day 6 of the photo challenge was "from a low angle." Now, I wanted to do something other than a picture of the sky or trees or anything like that, so I just looked around at the things around the house that I found interesting to look at and took some photos of them while sitting on the ground or standing under them. None of these photos were overly interesting or fantastic, not in my opinion anyway. However, there was one that I did sort of like. It's a photo of the cover on my grandparents' well in the backyard. At one time it looked like a tiny roof for the well, but it's seen better days. I sat down on the ground and took a picture of it. Here's the picture.

In other news: Andrew is coming to New Hampshire on the third! That's in five days! I've been trying to get him to come here for quite some time, and he finally is! I'm so excited for him not only to meet my family but to see the beautiful place I grew up. I'm finally getting to share my roots with him. I think that's really important and special. I'm going to take him around Amherst and Milford and show him all the places around here that are important to me. Then I'll take him to the beach and other places I frequent. I seriously can't explain how amazing and important and wonderful it will be.

I'll try to post again later today, to try and catch up with this photo challenge business. The next subject is fruit. Since I'm going grocery shopping today, maybe I'll take some nice fruit pictures in the grocery store. Is that a weird thing to do? Whatever. I'm doing it anyway.

Have a splendid Caturday! Here's a cat: