Finding my independence in Indy

Having lived away from home since I graduated from high school, and being one of only two children it might be surprising to find I am not very good at being independent. I am a great co-dependent. If I am cleaning I like to at least have someone sitting in the same room and talking to me. I would rather go any type of shopping with someone else, and going to dinner alone is not something I would enjoy or find relaxing.

With all of that being said I am in Indianapolis this week for the National FFA Convention. I don’t have any scheduled meetings while the students that I work with are attending their meetings. Instead of sitting in my hotel room and hanging out or reading all day, I decided that I was going to look around the town. That is right I explored downtown Indy by myself. I wanted to go to the NCAA Hall of Champions, but it is temporarily closed. So instead I went to the Indiana State Museum and learned all about the Hoosier state. By the by did you know that David Lettermen and Orville Redenbacker (sp? ) are from Indiana.

It was actually a very enjoyable afternoon and a great way to help pass some time, but I don’t know if I would consider myself completely independent.

ConDogs Senior Pictures

My brother is so stinking cute, and he is getting so old. He just got his senior pictures taken and here are the results. My personal favorite is number 22, let me know what ones you like:)
http://web.mac.com/christinahicken/Photography/Kellogg_Senior_Pictures.html

My First Article

For Ag week at Utah State I was asked to write an article about the organic farm for the school newspaper (the Utah Statesman). I was very nervous because I have never written an article for a newspaper, but don't worry my article was the feature article for the Wednesday paper! I was pretty excited. If you would like to read it, here is the link...
http://www.utahstatesman.com/contents/features/playing_in_the_dirt

Ready for Take Off!

When I graduated from high school I got this roller duffel type bag from my aunt and uncle. I take it almost anywhere that I go. If it is for a weekend or overnight trip it comes with me. If I am going to be gone for a week I somehow cram all my stuff in the bag. For the short trips it is excellent. For long trips I have to pack in specific order and fold very carefully to get everything I need in it. The only problem is when it comes time to leave I usually don’t keep things in order and wait until the last second so I am trying to cram everything back in the little red roller duffel (RRD). I have had this bag for a few years and the bottom is starting to wear out a little. I have also been taking trips that are a little longer. If it weren’t for my shoe problem I would still be able to take the RRD, but if I take the RRD I can only take the must haves for shoes so maybe brown shoes, black shoes, and I have to either wear my tennis shoes or flip flops because the really won’t fit into the bag.

For a while now I have thought about buying my own luggage so I can have a big bag for longer trips and for my shoes (seriously I have these yellow shoes that must be worn when I am on trips they are dang cute!). I have been looking for a while for my luggage. I did check wal-mart, but all they had were the basic black, red, and navy bags, I don’t want to have a bag like everyone else especially if I am going to be buying this for myself…lame. So I went to TJ Maxx. They had a big blue plaid bag but it was as way expensive, and it was only one, not a set, so I kept looking. Finally I got smart and decided that I would check on-line. BINGO! I found just what I was looking for.

It was colorful, it was fun it came in a set, it was decently priced, so I made my purchase and it showed up at my door a few days later. Let me just say that I am so excited for my cute new luggage and can’t wait until I get to use it. Here is a link to the picture http://images.smarter.com/300x300x15/30/60/5553860.jpg … I know right so cute! The only thing that would make it better is if it were yellow.

Don’t worry the RDD will still be used for the short trips until the bottom wears out or the wheels fall off. Just because it is getting old doesn’t mean that it still doesn’t enjoy its job.

Week of Welcome

I love the first week back to class. I get to see everyone that I missed during the summer, there are always tons of activities going on, and you really don’t have very much homework yet. So far this week I helped at a blood drive and got a cool new shirt for my hard workJ, a free scoop of aggie ice cream, a couple of dinners, a new game day shirt, had a great time at Bingo (that means I didn’t win a single thing) but so far the best part has been floating down the canal at mid-night. You might note that today is only Wednesday so there is still plenty of fun to be had.

Now back to the floating the canal. I have lived in Logan for a year and have always wanted to go and float. It is hard to get a fun group of people to go because everyone always has conflicting schedules. At mid-night on a Tuesday a group of us didn’t have any other matters that were too pressing so we decided that we would take the plunge.

There is construction being done around the place that you get in, and one of the workers saw us. We were all sure that we were going to be busted and get in trouble for being around the construction site, but we were wrong. The worker was from California the first thing he said was wait an f-ing second you are going to do what! Do you know its freezing cold! That was really the last thing that I wanted to hear right then because it was very cold I was doing my best to think warm Hawaii thoughts. After that he told us about working construction in downtown Oakland CA at night and how crazy everyone told him he was, but he wasn’t even stupid enough to try floating down the canal. He was so funny he wanted to have documentation of our trip so we took a picture with him he wrote down the time and went and checked the water temperature. It was in the mid forties. He told us he would try and check on us and let us know that he had emergency heating blankest in the car. He was very nice and hecka funny!

Floating down the canal wasn’t actually too bad, it was a clear night so you could see the starts and the mountains are all around the area. It was a very pretty float, just not very warm. Our little construction worker even went to a couple of spots he could drive close and he really did check on us and make sure we were all still alive. The worst of it was when we had to get out and hike down to the car. The wind was blowing we were all obviously wet, and my legs were numb.
Since I was on the verge of freezing, I got home and jumped in the shower, I was stinging all over! It was like when you sit in a hot tub, run around in the snow and get back in. I even had to pull the extra blankest out of my closet to stay warm for the whole night. It was so fun, I don’t know if I would do it again but I am glad that I did it once!

Taking Back My Life

Ever since Aug 8 2008 I have been a little pre-occupied with everything happening in Beijing, well I guess just everything that has to do with the Olympics. When I say everything I mean the entire kit and caboodle. The Mexican women winning their first diving medal, the Chinese almost making a sweep in diving, girls who claim to be 16 competing in gymnastics, Nastia and Shawn keeping me up every night, Nastia tying with the Chinese girl on the bars, the cute US diver who didn’t make it to the finals but who is only 15, she will be back and rock our socks off in London, Iraq not being able to compete this year (I am quite mad about that), table tennis, volleyball, water polo, walking, running, swimming (Hello Michael!), basketball, I LOVE the Olympics.

I however don’t have a TV that gets local channels, and it was hard to watch it all on-line because the commentators are not as good, so I scheduled my life to fit prim time Olympics, one day I went early to a work meeting to watch Michael get his 10th gold. Another day I went to the gym, a dirty trick that they play is you can only hear what is being said on the TV if you have the ear phones plugged in and are continuously moving. Seriously, it made me work out longer but I just wanted to watch the dang Olympics! I also stayed a few nights at my boss’s house while she was on vacation. I volunteered for the early shift just so I would have to spend the night and watch the Olympics. I even went and saw my parents who are so blessed to have the magical box of DVR. This helped to provide me with hours and hours of Olympic coverage with the ability to fast forward through the commercials. Thank you DVR!

The Olympics even so graciously ended the day before school started, so I have now taken back control of my life, sort of. Now if I could only convince those professors to not give any homework assignments!

Lazy vs. Karma

If you have ever been to Logan you know that there are lots of hills. I live at the bottom of one of those blasted hills which can be good, and bad. Some mornings I wake up and I think to myself, Man I would be way more excited for class if I didn’t have to walk up that hill. Now this is not a small hill, it is quite an incline. Everyday though I think of how guilty I would feel if I didn’t go to class because I was simply just too lazy.

This summer I have had to give a few campus tours and I had a friend who had a class at the same time that I would need to be at campus so I would hitch a ride from her (like I said I really hate that hill). Well summer classes ended August 1, and I had a tour today, so I decided that I would beat the system. I would drive my car to the institute, ask about classes, and park my car at the institute building while I did my tour, just a stone’s throw away from where I needed to be.

I give my tour, it rocked as usual those lucky people (haha) I got done, and start walking home. The walk home is one part of school that I really can look forward too. That means class is over and I just have to make it down the hill which is usually pretty easy (except for when the sidewalk is really icy). So today I did just that, I started walking home. I got down the steepest part of the hill before I remembered that I was so smart and parked at the institute.

Oh Karma, I have to give it to you, you are a tough opponent, but you did well. Lazy, I’m not surprised that you lost. Thanks for reminding me that I should have just walked up the hill to begin with this morning!
Karma 1, Lazy 0