Emotion-less

73. Create 10 playlists of 10 different songs each for 10 different emotions

I started working on another part of the list and am getting stuck on a part I didn't think I would.I cannot for the life of me think of 10 emotions that are detailed in songs. I have covered the basics - happy, sad, and angry. I've covered the ways your heart can feel about someone - in love, heartbroken, and wishful. But thats only six emotions. What now? I guess I'll have to think it over a bit longer.

Getting Back on Track

I have been remiss in several things over the past however many months it has been since I last updated this blog. But I am trying to pull my life back together a little and decided to include this in the turn-around. I may have been absent in documenting the completed tasks on my 101 List, but thankfully I have actually managed to accomplish several things. So here it is a list of my new (but really some of them not so new) accomplishments:

11. Pass the HESI

I passed the HESI which is basically a practice test for the NCLEX (which in turn allows you to get your nursing license). At Riv, if you don't pass the HESI than you are not allowed to graduate so getting that out of the way last April was extremely exciting. Then I had to take the real thing...

10. Pass the NCLEX

I did it! I officially became a nurse in June of 2009 after passing my NCLEX on the first try. It was probably the hardest, most terrifying test I have ever taken and I thought that there was no way I passed, but thankfully I was wrong on that count. I found out I passed the morning I left for Camp Shawnee for the summer which was a huge relief off my shoulders. Speaking of Camp Shawnee...

33. Go back to the mountain for camp

I am so glad to be able to say that I spent a total of 7 weeks on the mountain this past summer. Words cannot express the experiences I had or the relationships I formed with campers and counselors alike. It was bittersweet, however, because we were told at the end of the summer that Camp Shawnee will not re-open next summer to allow time for repairs and renovations. For me, this means last summer may have been my last as I am graduating in May and am being forced into the real world. I will be getting a nursing job (hopefully!) in May and will not be able to take off 7 weeks during the summer to volunteer, but I am hoping by some miracle I will manage to find some way to get back there for one more summer. I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed!

23. Pay for 5 random people at the drive thru behind me on separate occasions.

I have spent a lot of time driving back and forth to Kentucky this year and was able to accomplish this one quite quickly. I'm hoping one day the favor will make itself back to me when I'm stuck with no cash at the darn tolls on the way to Manchester.

42. Be able to do ten ‘manly’ push-ups

I am so proud to say that I can officially pump out 10 manly push-ups. I owe it all to my field hockey coach!

80. Visit Grandpa’s grave

It wasn't under the circumstances I imagined, but because of another funeral at the same cemetary I was able to go and visit my grandfather's grave.

83. Send the girls a picture and a letter

I sent my sisters a picture of the two of them at the beach this past summer that I added some stuff to along with a lovely letter. This picture just makes my heart so happy.

86. Send Leia a care package before she comes back from AmeriCorps.

Well, I think this one is a toss-up as to whether it was actually completed because I sent it before she got back, but unfortunately it didn't quite make it to her in time. So it ended up back in my house. However, I was able to give it to Leia in person which honestly was the best case scenario possible!

89. Watch the original Disney Movie Robin Hood from start to finish

Done with my Biff this past May. "Ooo-da-la-lee, ooo-da-la-lee...fortune tellers, lucky charms!"

93. Print out pictures to fill the frame Shawna made for me

Done! And it looks lovely. Here's one of my most favorite pictures in the whole frame...



95. Write Courtney a letter

I have done so much better about keeping in touch with Courtney (one of my campers from the summer). In fact, I think we've exchanged 3 or 4 letters just this past semester. Maybe I should count that against some of the other things on my list I have failed miserably at.

12 inches.

Thats how much of my hair I just cut off - 12 inches.

#27 - Donate my hair to Locks of Love.

I wasn't exactly planning on doing it right now, it was more of a long-term/sometime-in-the-distant-future sort of plan. However, after some convincing from a friend, I decided that now was the time. I'm still adjusting to it, but its really growing on me.

Before Picture



After Picture

I'm Out of Clever Titles at the Moment

I never thought I would be quite this bad at updating a blog, but time just escapes me these days and I find myself forgetting that I started this small documentary of my 101 list. I guess this is one thing on my list that I will not be completing (#53 - blog about the list once every other week). But I promise to try better at least until June 15th when I am (finally!) back in Kentucky and don't have access to the internet. Then I'll have a legitimate excuse for my lack of posts.

I have been successful in some other aspects of my list.

#92 - Send another care package to a camp friend. Done today! So one lucky person will soon be getting a fun filled package in the mail from New Hampshire. On the subject of camp, I got a lovely wall post today from my friend Sticky, reminding me that camp is not far away at all and soon we will be back on the mountain. It doesn't seem possible that all this time has passed since August when this summer seemed an eternity away. And now its less than two months away. BAH! It just makes my heart so happy to think about being back in Kentucky.

#90 - Run for SGA President for Senior Year. Elections were last week and I am happy to say that I will be the 2009-2010 SGA President. It wasn't much of a battle since I was running unopposed, but I did make some lovely tye-dye t-shirts to seal the deal.

Just a couple of rugged individuals...

My friend, Annie, has been bugging me for quite some time now to blog about our latest adventure. And so now that I have actually managed to find some free time in my life, I will do my best to give a brief overview of a week that I could never quite encapsulate in a small blog post.

For the second year in a row, I took part in an alternative Spring Break Trip with my school's Habitat for Humanity Club. We travel in two mini vans to Chatham County, North Carolina and spend a week doing whatever is asked of us to help families in need of affordable housing. This year, we painted. And painted. And painted. And then painted some more. In the course of a week, I along with eleven other college students and two Habitat volunteers managed to paint the exterior of two entire houses, do touch up work on one other house, and set up scaffolding on a fourth. I have discovered, along with the rest of my group, a newfound love for scaffolding. We love it - every part of it - from setting it up as high as we are allowed to climbing all over it to breaking it down. Scaffolding is the equivalent of an adult jungle gym on steroids. Due to our complete love and obsession with scaffolding, one of the girls on the trip named our group Team Spidermonkey and the following picture for me is the best way I can describe our trip.


GO TEAM SPIDERMONKEY!

One step at a time

Already I feel I am failing a little at completing my 101 list. I was supposed to blog every other week about how I am working through the list and life in general and already I've fallen behind. I feel as if some of the goals I have set for myself are a little unrealistic for how busy I am, but I'm going to try and stick with the plan.

On the brighter side, I have been able to cross another thing off my list. #11: Passing the HESI. On Friday, I took the HESI test which is basically a practice test for the NCLEX which I have to take in the spring in order to become a nurse. The only thing is its mandatory that we pass the practice test with an 850 which is equal to scoring better than 80% of nursing students that take the test. Its a pretty hard test, and I am happy to say that I have officially passed it and can now focus on lots of other important things I have going on in my life.

Even more exciting than passing the HESI is that I am moving even closer to going back to Camp Shawnee for camp again this summer (#33). I emailed back Kathy last week letting her know that I plan on going back to camp for the entire summer. June 15th cannot come soon enough.

I'm Just a Work in Progress

Yesterday, out of the blue, I decided that it was the perfect time to give up soda and coffee for 3 months (#1). I didn't do anything special the day before to make sure that I'd be able to survive the time. No 10 cans of Diet Coke to hold me over till June. No last Starbuck's run. I just stopped. My theory is that when the thought strikes me that the time is right, I should just go with it. I have a bad habit of procrastinating over things and overanalyzing everything, so starting randomly seems the best solution. As I am typing this I have realized that starting this now means it will be over by the time I head back to Kentucky which means I'll be allowed to drink Ale8. Another great reason why yesterday was the perfect day.