Just a bit on Christmas

I've written before about Christmas.
About songs that annoy me and some present mishaps.
But past all the tinsel that's actually pretty easy to clean up, there's something else.
Why do we buy gifts for people?
To prove we love them?
Because it's socially demanded?
In hopes that they bought you something at least as cool / useful / expensive as you bought them?
Or because we really want to give them a gift as God gave us a gift on Christmas?

There are people who are having skinny Christmases this year.
There are people giving gifts of meals, partial tuition, car repairs, and new clothes for work or school this year.
There are people who literally have nothing to give to the ones who mean the most to them.
But we can all give something.
This thing isn't material.
It costs you nothing, so it fits any budget.
And it won't be forgotten by New Year's Day.

Give the gift God gave us.

Give the gift of sacrificial love.
(And I'm not just preaching at you, I'm talking about me, too.)

Love the people who love you.
Love the people who annoy you to death.
Love the people who make your life more difficult.
Love the people who are a bit prickly.
Love the people close to you, because you see them every day.
Love the people you'll probably only see once, because it means more than you might know.
Love the people who think they are unlovable.

We certainly were.

"While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 5:8b

The Finals are Coming

Here it is.
The week all students dread:
FINALS WEEK.

It's that week in the semester when BOOM everyone shows up again and you're just sitting in class like "I thought everyone had dropped this class".
It's that time when everyone - students and professors alike - are just so tired that everything is funny. Not seems funny. Is funny.
For example, one of my classmates was tossing an object into the air and catching it during one of our classes. Wasn't bothering anyone. Suddenly our professor turns around and does a double take.
"Is that a hard boiled egg?"
My friend and I started laughing hysterically as our classmate just stared at him.
"No. . . "
"What is that?"
"It's lip balm. . ."
"Oh okay."
"Do you have something against hard hard boiled eggs?"
"I really do not like hard boiled eggs."
"Okay. . ."
Our class was not the same that day.

And here is a haiku about finals:
I can't remember
I learned this four months ago
No no no no no

This is not an overreaction.
Trust me, it is not.

A Pinteresting Tumbl of a Day

Pin it here.

If you'd like this to be a link-up, comment below!

High Five for Friday!

1 ~ Business Writing Class

Doesn't sound like it would be, but that class can be a blast.
We're supposed to be working on proposals for a program for our college, which actually is pretty interesting, but we talked about every type of project but that for about half the class Wednesday.
But classes like that are usually only fun because of the professor. . .

2 ~ Professors Who Cancel Class on Fridays

Yep, it's my Business Writing professor.
He's awesome.
And to his credit, he cancels class on Friday because we turn in a report on our work, so it's not like we're getting a totally free pass.
But still.

3 ~ I got the internship I really wanted!

I've been volunteering at a local non-profit organization for about two semesters, and the work I've been doing has become more and more computer based and complicated.
(One of them actually didn't realize I was a volunteer and was about to hire me as a consultant.)
But now, I can get college credit for working, and I'll get a ton of experience!

4 ~ Mushrooms

I just love mushrooms, but we don't often have them.
We did last night, and that made me very happy.
And while we're on the subject of food. . .

5 ~ Doggy Antics

. . . Our dog Bud has a bad habit of begging.
We don't cave.
"Never?"
"Never! -- Well, hardly ever. . ."
But last night, I heard the telltale sounds of happy licking.
I had dropped some food earlier and picked it up and threw it out, but I figured Bud was just savoring the vapors.
Um, no.
He climbed onto my chair and ate an entire bowl of fettuccine alfredo.
Doggone it.

High Five for Friday!

I've decided to participate in this lovely link-up because 

1) it's pretty fun, and 

2) it's good to get in the habit of looking back and being grateful for things, no matter how small or inconsequential they may seem to be.

So, here we go!

1 ~ Fall Break

Oh come on, if you're telling me you are / were far too studious to be excited about a break, you're lying.

Really.

Of course, even if you aren't / weren't studious, you probably still have / had plenty of work to do, because not only do some professors seem to not understand the concept that you're enrolled in more classes than just theirs, they also seem to have a poor grasp on the term "break".

2 ~ I got my wisdom teeth out

I know, this sounds really sick and grisly, but when you've been in on-and-off pain for about 4 years which became far, far worse in the past 3 months, and way worse in the past 3 weeks . . . well, you'd be pretty excited to get that over with, too.

Plus, Fall Break (see above) allows me basically a whole work week to recuperate, and since I'm making sense typing all this, I'd say I'm coming along nicely.

Minus the chipmunk cheeks.

3 ~ Mashed potatoes, grits, applesauce, ice cream, and basically every mushy food there is

Yep, mushy foods have been my dear friend the past day and a half.

Good job I actually like all those foods, otherwise I think I'd be on a strict ice cream diet, and that doesn't bode well for the running I plan to be doing soon.
Oh, and also for me mum, who spoon fed her 21 year old daughter the applesauce, and for my dad, who makes awesome mashed potatoes.

4 ~ Yogurt + granola bites

I'll be honest, I'm feeling a little too lazy to get up and see what kind of granola it is I'm talking about (let's chalk that up to post-op dizziness), but I know the vanilla clusters I got are in a blue box, looked pretty healthy, and I got them from Target, so they're automatically awesome, right?

Also, I'd have lumped this in with #3, but I think granola's a no-no right now.

5 ~ Netflix

Need I really say more?

Being 21

Remember when you were a kid and you thought Sweet 16 was so far away? I mean, heck, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, and Snow White were married at 16!

And then you turned 16 and you realized that you didn't know anything and what the heck were those girls thinking, getting married at 16?!

You just got your driver's licence!

You thought 18 was the thing. You could tackle anything when you were 18.

Until you turned 18.
Then you realized you totally do not have a handle on much at all.
The next milestone is 21.
21.
Where you can literally - and legally - do anything you want.
Within reason, obviously.
Well, let me tell you, Girls-younger-than-21, 21 is not what it's cracked up to be.
Yeah, you can basically do whatever you want . . . but with that said, there's a lot of responsibility on your shoulders.
I know a lot of gals my age - including myself - that would just love nothing more than to curl up with a tub of ice cream or and popcorn and watch Disney Princess movies all day.
And maybe a little a lot of Doctor Who.
But we can't.
We've got college.
We've got jobs.
We've got bills to pay, assignments due, and people counting on us to get things done.
That's not to say that we don't have moments of calm or just time to have fun and relax, but those moments don't come often.
Girls-younger-than-21, treasure your moments of freedom.
You might be bored, but another word for boredom is free.
And treasure the innocence.
And the simplicity.
Enjoy it while you can.
It's not going to last.

If you won't learn from your own mistakes. . .

. . . at least learn from someone else's.

Namely, MINE.

Okay, freshmen, listen up: no, you don't want to cram your first two years full of gen-ed classes because you don't want to be slammed with whatever classes are required for your major. 

You'll go crazy.

But don't slack on your gen-eds . . . Like I did.

Namely, I was really good in taking my foreign languages while they were still fresh from high school.

I waited about four years to take my math.

I waited about five years to take my sciences.

Ten out of ten would not recommend!

So if you're one of those stubborn people who doesn't learn from your own mistakes, at least learn from mine.

(Oh yes, and I also have to take speech; ironically after I've given the bulk of my class presentations.)

Exit, Pursued by a Bear

I don't know where the stereotype of non-physically active nerds came from, but I really don't think it's true.

For example, I am a nerd.

To an extent.

And I exercise(d).

I mean, I still do, I just haven't in a while for various reasons, among them being shin splints, a cough that won't go away and messes up my pace, and college.

But, as an English major, I don't see why this is.

I mean, one of the greatest physical chase scenes in history was written by Shakespeare:

"Exit, pursued by a bear."

Now, I will be the first to admit that we don't always approach exercise the right way.

Or at least, I don't.

Ever heard of that 10% rule? How you're not supposed to increase your mileage by more than 10% per week?

Well, I basically lived by the 100% rule for about 2 and a half hours once.

5 miles to about 10.5.

Not the brightest thing I've ever done.

But regarding the nerdiness. . .

So I was running down this road that was way longer than I expected it be, and then I realized that it was the longest side of right triangle. The Pythagorean Theorem popped into my mind and I started sorting it out.

As I was running.

As if the cars weren't enough to worry about. . .

Confessions: I pronounce everything wrong.

This is really embarrassing to admit as an English major and a bookish person in general, but I really do butcher the art of the spoken word.

It's the reason I took Spanish instead of French.

French people should thank me for that, because they would have murdered me.

But I seriously am horrendously bad at pronunciation. 

Point en case:

Friend of mine lost her school ID a few months ago, and our decals expire every year.

She got her ID, but then couldn't get a decal for a while, because they moved the office or whatnot.

Well.

She ended up getting a parking ticket - hey, there are only so many "visitor" spots - and mentioned it to me.

I mentioned to her that someone had said that if you didn't pay it, they wouldn't send you a bill or anything.

Then I said, "I guess it makes sense; I mean, they're not city or munsiple police".

She just stopped and stared at me.

"Alyse. Do you mean municipal?"

"Yeah. . . yeah, that's it."

She looked at me and laughed.

"You know what you are? You're one of those people that read a lot but never say the words out loud."

Yes.

Yes, that is exactly what I am.

That, and a dummkopf.

And actually, I can pronounce that right.

Walking in a Winterless Wonderland

And a fall-less wonderland, as well.

For those of you who live in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and the like, you understand what I'm saying.

For those of you who live in other parts of America or the world, let me explain.

We have very odd weather here.

It starts warming up in February.

No lie. 

It starts cooling off in October or November.

We basically have no winter.

I'm 21, and I've seen snow once in my life.

It was around Valentine's Day, and I was babysitting about 20-30 minutes away from my house. The kids' grandmother called and asked if we'd noticed the snow.

I got insanely excited -- 17 years old and it was snowing! Woo hoo!

I was really nervous about driving back into town, because I'd never seen snow, and now I had to drive in it? 

The kids' grandfather followed me into town, which was really nice, but then after running around in the snow like a three year old (which my dad described as "typical college kid behavior"), he wanted me to drive around with him.

I was really afraid of just going 'round town for fun, but it actually wasn't that bad, because no one else here knows how to drive in snow, so no one else was about.

Also, in my biology book, the author mentioned a compound - I think some sort of salty stuff - and called it a "deicer". Well, in my limited knowledge of ice and snow, I first assumed it was a fancy French word for something and pronounced "deh-eye-see-yer".

Um, no, it's "de-icer". A thing that melts ice.

Oh.

Well.

Okay.
This also explains why - when test driving a car - I looked in the dash thing-y (the word escapes me at the moment) and saw this really weird looking object.
It looked like a toothless comb.
I showed it to my dad like "What is this thing??"
He laughed and told me to guess.
Apparently it was an ice scraper.
Oh.

Writing Well is Hard

I'm in a senior seminar this semester. We're all working on either fiction projects or poetry projects.

For those of you who have read my poetry, you've probably gathered that 1) I'm pretty good at free verse, and 2) anything not in free verse is not my cup of tea. 

Now fiction . . . fiction is my cup of tea.

You could say that I've had a bit of experience writing fiction.

I self-published a pretty short book about two years ago, and most of the people who left reviews liked it.

This semester I'm aiming for a full-length novel.

Oh my giddy aunt, y'all.

You have no idea how hard this is.

Keep in mind, this isn't necessarily for enjoyment, though I'm sure I will enjoy it for the most part.

This is for a grade.

And credits.

Mostly the credits.

But get this: there's a prospectus.

We've gotta outline it.

We've got to cover everything from beginning to end, no plot holes.

And we're likely going to get critiqued.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining -- I love critiques of my stories. Love them. It makes for a better, more coherent, more detailed story.

But gosh . . . it's hard.

But hard is good.

First of the Last Days

Oh my . . . that sounded much more bleak and apocalyptic than I meant it to.

What I'm talking about is the first day of classes tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I'm a senior.

It'll be the first day of the last days of my college education.

And while I'm really excited about that, I'm kinda bummed, too.

I feel like I've just hit this point where I'm ready to have a degree and start being a productive member of society, but I feel like I want to do so much more.

I want to go to Europe.

I want to own a salon.

I want to learn fencing.

I want to go to the beaches in Florida.

I want to see snow. (Not in August, obviously, but I do.)

I want to write what I want to write, but I don't know what I want to write.

I guess tomorrow is one step closer to all of that.

Yep, I suppose it is.

My, Oh My

It's August 15th. 

Summer is over. 

My, oh my, where'd the months go?

My younger sister started her dual enrollment at the local technical college this morning. My younger brother starts his freshman year at the Citadel this weekend. I start my senior year next week. 

My, oh my, where'd the years go? 

I guess all we can do is honor God with our hours, and trust Him in the moments, because He sees the years behind us and the years before us. 

Those years are made of months, weeks, days, hours, and moments. 

Live them well.

When the last final's done. . .

. . . we all like:

No, really.

That's what we do.

Oh, and by the way, I'm officially a senior now.