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?

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.

Cold Front?

Cold front?!

More like a "cold front, back, sides, and middle"!

It's freezing!

But yes, I'm counting my blessings: we're not dealing with what the Yankees are, and I'm grateful for that, and I'm praying for them, especially since we've got family up there.

But shoot . . . for the past five days, my weather app on my phone has been going crazy. 

Thursday it went ballistic in a class (even though it was on silent) and said we were getting a tropical cyclone. 

Well.

That was the driest cyclone I've ever seen in my life.

It said we have coastal flood advisories, rip tide statements, and whole load of utter "not here-ness". 

Oh well. 

At least now that it's almost winter it feels like fall . . .

Bipolar Beaufort Weather

I don't know about the rest of the country, but isn't it a pretty good rule of thumb that when it's cold in the morning, it'll still be cold in the afternoon?

Doesn't that help you dress appropriately for the day?

Beaufort isn't like that.

I think Beaufort's a woman, and she's bipolar. 

It was like, 60 degrees this morning, so I wore a knitted wool top, a scarf (more for the astetics than weather), and sneakers. 

Um . . . 

Lo and behold, at noon, it's about 85 degrees.

. . . What?!

Already scared of next semester . . .

I just want to sit down and cry -- I don't know what to do about school. 

I thought I could handle 6 classes in one day and maybe I can . . . But 5 classes in a row? 3 English classes, 2 of which are 400-level? A sociology class, a history class, and a business? 

What the heck was I thinking, signing up for that? Oh . . . I probably wasn't thinking at all.

Come to think of it, I bet I know why this is.

I bet God's teaching me to not procrastinate.

He's teaching me to be diligent.

He's teaching me to take assignments seriously, although I already do. More seriously, I guess.

I just pray I can learn the lessons in time.

FINISH LIKE A BOSS

So, my final final was at 8 AM.
I am not a morning person, so this did not thrill me.
My professor said we should all get "amped up", so I drove there listening to this:

We have two and a half hours allotted for our finals at USCB.
This was a Late Shakespeare final.
(Yes, I signed up and paid for that. I actually loved it.)
The final was half multiple choice, and half essay.
I finished the multiple choice in (less than or equal to) 30 minutes.
The other hour and a half was devoted to the essay.
2 pages.
Front and back.
Yep.
I was the third to leave out of maybe 20 of us.
On the way home, I listened to this:

Got my course grade back today.
An "A".
Thank you Jesus and boo-yah!

Fire Alarms and Beverage Ops

Not to be confused with "Black Ops", which I'm sure is more interesting.

Okay, I'll be honest: I haven't done a fire drill since I was about 7. I only remember that you're not supposed to panic. I had the perfect opportunity to put that to use today.
I was packing up my Shakespeare papers and notebooks - not my actual textbook, though; that 20-pounder won't fit in my giant backpack. Suddenly, there was this high-pitched . . . I dunno, beep / siren type sound and this light started flashing. At first, we were all quite confused, because our professor didn't think there was a drill scheduled for today, but when we saw everyone else going for the stairs, we figured it was probably a good idea to go, too.
The good news is nobody panicked - we calmly stampeded downstairs.
The bad news is that all 200 of us stood outside in the suffocating humidity, holding all of our junk for about 10 minutes wondering if it was a drill, a joke, or the real thing. We were bored. Really bored. 
Finally, some guy came out and told us we could go back in.
No explanation.
Nothing.

Later this afternoon, we learned about beverages of the potentially belligerent nature. You name it, it was mentioned.
I must say now that I don't drink. Most of my friends don't drink. I sat there with this blank stare for 15 minutes before we were done. The professor then proceeded to tell us about all the different ways a bartender could rip off his boss.
It was really interesting.

So, yes, my day was anti-climatic. 

First day of school!

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo . . .

Today was the first day of school!

I worked full time this summer, and realized that it's going to be very strange to not be working all the time . . . Yes, it will be very strange indeed . . .

Anyhoo, the day went by really well! I just wish I'd known I didn't have to bring that 20 pound Shakespeare anthology to class . . . everything would have been much lighter.

I met with two other friends for lunch, and that was fun! (If one of you is reading this, we're on for next week!) Luckily, there is somebody I know in all of my classes, except for perhaps the one I have once a week.

But whatever.

I'm just grateful I was able to go back this year. I just pray that I do well! XD