Memories of Times Forgotten

Yesterday I had to go to Payroll Office to get my time card signed since I forgot to do it. [I usually do eTime]. As I climbed the three floors up to the third floor of College Hall, I began to reflect on Gallaudet University. First, I decided that I really ought to take pictures of the University to show my friends, who had never visited Gallaudet, what it looks like.

When I finished (a mere five minutes later) and headed downstairs and out to meet with my roommate at the Cafeteria on the other side of the campus for lunch, I was hit by a wave of nostalgia and a REALIZATION. It has been nearly two years and a half as of next week. It feels so weird to think that I’m entering the second half of my third year this upcoming Jan, and how things have changed on campus so much and how things have changed for myself.

I do remember College Hall my freshman year. During NSO Week, my friends and I played around there. We dared each other to go through the coffin door (Pictures will be posted in the next post, if interested) due to the myth. During that same time, my friend dropped and broke a sidekick she had just brought that day.

Now, I’m an older, more experienced student and when I look at the freshmen of this year, some of whom I’m friends with, I feel a weird sensation. I was once like them. Naive, not sure about how things worked at College. I was once unsure about my friends and was in the midst of developing friendships with other freshmen and older students. My freshman year was probably one of the most defining year I had in terms of friendship and getting to know who I was when it came to my identity as a Deaf person rather than a HOH person in a hearing world.

In terms of finals, though, everything is hectic. I’m so busy; it’s absolutely ricid! I’m dealing with three papers due next Thurs, a Class Observation tomorrow, and two tests on Monday. I’ll be happy to go home and SLEEP forever, but even then, I’m still not free from school. I still have to do things for my Honors Capstone class in the Spring (HON 487 – Prep for Senior Honors Project). Pictures and more memories will be forthcoming!

Hectic, Hectic, and even more Hectic

Things have been hectic here. Since it is November, the unofficial crunch month, I’ve been busy with homework, projects, and researching for papers. I’ve also gotten back involved with writing as way to ignore homework, and sad to say, it’s very efficient. I’ve been scrambling a bit more than usual lately.

My post will be relatively short, most likely because I have a few more things to do for tomorrow that requires my full attention. Curse you, school. *shakes fist at it*

I’ve been busy registering for classes and looking up classes. When I finally (pah!) gotten around to actually registering, a tiny, tiny bump occurred. I couldn’t register for some essential classes because my “pre-requisites haven’t been met”. This is of course, very infuriating for someone who just want to get it done with. Another round of emailing teachers occurs now, and I’m waiting to hear back from them. I want to get one teacher’s permission before I ask the other two since that class is a pre-requirement for the other two.

In other news, the election occurred! It was my first time voting and I voted via absentee ballot. My state, Illinois, went almost automatically to Obama on CNN. The day it votes republican will be a very very very scary day. Since I’m from Illinois, I wanted to be at Grant Park for the Chicago rally badly. My friends had gotten some pictures of it – apparently the streets of Chicago were filled with people as well as the park itself. I still want to be there in some ways even now. However, I must admit it feels weird now that the election is over. I expect that there should be something different about the world – maybe it’s a little brighter or warmer (of course, Winter, ha!), yet everything is still the same. I don’t think any of us will truly feel the impact until Obama is actually in office.

Even though I dearly want to sleep (going to 4:30am, getting up five hours later is not a good idea!), I should focus on my homework. Farewell, my dears.

Not Homecoming

I was the loser and I decided that I didn’t feel like attending homecoming bash this year and I promptly chose to go home for the weekend instead. I needed to grab some things from home in the first place and needed (terribly) to get away from campus.

It was FUN. I got a new webcam, new sweater, and a pair of jeans out of the deal. I was quite pleased to see sleeping without meds work after spending two days drugging myself to sleep after two days worth of insominia. It was nice to not eat the Gallaudet food (and then equally unpleasant to return to the Gallaudet food after eating food that Mom made or I ate out), and it was fantastic to see my friends. One of  my friend was visiting Chicago the same weekend and I managed to squeeze in a hour with her catching up on life, her ex, and teaching more signs to her. Shortly afterwards, I ran off to see another one of my friend. After eating Chipotle (HEAVENLY!!), we headed off to the mall. We wrapped up the night at a halloween store where we snuck photo-taking opportunities under the nose of the staff:

Pleasant weekend! I do admit I’m glad to be back in DC. It has wormed its way into my heart. Aww. Now, what to do for Halloween… hmm.

Insomnia

*eye twitches, roll over to escape the evil sun, attempt to sleep only to keep hearing thoughts running through your head about the lack of sleep you had*

I’ve been suffering from insomnia for the past two nights. Both nights I have been unable to sleep until appoxmiately 7 or 8. Thankfully I had no classes today that I was skipping for my three hours worth of sleep. Today was Enrichment Day and instead of attending Enrichment Day activities (which I wouldn’t anyways, haha!), I was being incredibly lazy and not doing homework while creating lists on DIDDIT (the ultimate homework avoidance thing, thanks to Meredith!) and checking activities off.

I’m so frustrated with the lack of proper sleep I’m getting. A quick inquiry to Mom revealed a possible solution//tylenol PM. So tonight, I will take some. And I hope I do because i need some proper sleep that lasts longer than four hours!!

Midterms, Papers, and Sickness

It is inevitable that I will get sick. I mean, after living in a dorm room where my roommate is not even a proper several feet away and currently is sick too, it’s very likely I would get sick.

And get sick I did. I have the worse cough going on and my nose is all stuffy. My ears hurts but not like the ear bursting feelings I experienced during the summer. I’ve been sick since Wednesday, but it got intolerably horrible on Friday in which with the exception of a hour and a half playing volleyball ((horribly, I might add. I was very unwilling to play with my usual gusto)), I was lying in my bed. I’m happy to say though that after buying orange juice, jello, and some hydrogen peroxide, my lovely sickness is starting to feel a bit better.

The worse part about it all is that it happened during midterm week. Can we say bad timing?? Well, I’m sure it would be worse if it happened during finals week. Midterm week is upon us… well, ended on us!

With the exception of one more midterm paper I have to complete for tomorrow, all of my midterms are done with. I had to take three tests this week and write two papers. I’m happy it is all over though, with the exception of the one paper, because it means that I have seven-ish weeks until the semester is over. Classes selection time will be coming up soon. ugh.

Speaking of that paper, I need to commit to writing it. Ta!

A Dead Roach

You never realize how far from home you are until someone tells you that there’s a dead roach in the bathroom and she doesn’t want to throw it away. Of course, she demands I look at it. Of course I demand not to and respond that I shall hold my bladder forevermore.

Okay, honestly, that’s besides the point. The whole point of this post is to reflect on home. I was talking to B’s mom about home and my relationship with my brothers. I am reminded instantly of the sibling rivalry I had with my youngest brother (who is almost three years younger than me). Family is such an important part of a person’s life, no matter at what period in life you go through. Sometimes I wonder how things would had changed if my parents didn’t support my decision to go to Gallaudet after they visited campus.

If you’re really serious about attending Gallaudet, it is something to damper your spirit if your family feels uncomfortable or awkward about where you’re attending. I’m thankful they didn’t, but at the same time, I think I would had gone on with it. I don’t know, this is random thinking.

Overall, school, contrary to Colleen’s lack of busywork, has gotten increasingly busy. Mondays continue to be my hard days and I’m relieved to have Wednesday and Fridays off. I’m taking eighteen credits, two major courses, working 10 hours at the library and now getting four hours working at Kendall School. My poor brain is near explosion.

I still don’t want to go near the bathroom. God. *makes a face*

Drowning on Dry Land

I hope you do forgive me. I’ve been abysmally busy with everything the last three weeks. (Has it already been THREE weeks?) I began classes two weeks ago with my first taste of Education courses. Let just say I’m sagging under the workload and figuring out my schedule for the week in terms to time management since I never had to worry about it before I began this semester. My to-do list this week includes:

• Piaget Presentation (due next Monday)
• Articles for Group Paper
• Math Test
• Discussion Board
• More online portfolio (e.g. letterhead and Assure Model Step 1 and 2)

I began Pilates class for real yesterday after a week of getting to know each other and fitness testing (then Wednesday of lecture). Let just say my abs are killing me and my upper arms. Ouch. Clearly I am out of shape. Note to self: must get in shape. I’m actually kind of looking forward to tomorrow’s class. Despite the fact that I’m so out of shape that it’s hard for me to keep up with those lovely all fit people, I feel loads better after the class and I think if I continue this, I can keep working on the motivation to get into shape.

With the elections close by, it’s not hard to feel the political tension and rush that’s sweeping the nation. While I support Obama, the fact that McCain picked a woman vice president means that either way, history is in the making in United States with this upcoming election.

School’s About to Begin… again.

Oh lord. Is it already Saturday? School begins Monday and I must confess, I am SO not ready to go back to school. I’ve become used to working and not worrying about classes, homework, teachers, projects, etc. (On that note, I need to send my transcript to Gallaudet from Oakton for this recent summer asap). Anyways, yeah. Monday is so soon… and I’m just stuck on summer.

I started working again on Thursday after confirming with my supervisor that I was returning to work Wednesday. Let just say that I am NEVER moving another piece of furniture for the rest of this weekend. Lord. I got a chance to check out some new changes ahead of everyone else. The library has a new study center by the women’s bathroom on the first floor. It’s called Deaf Library Study Center. It’s gorgeous. There are five new tv carts for people to watch movies for class or pleasure there, four new computers, a new videophone, and a television. There is room for people to bring their own computer or have a small study group (of course, there are also other rooms in the library for private study groups). I brought in two tables for the room during the whole moving stuff.

My room’s a terrible mess. My roommate arrived last night to move in some stuff and then shift furniture around. I haven’t gotten around to cleaning it up after she left (and I had to do my laundry on top of it) so the room is a mess. I’ll probably do a cleaning thing tonight because it’s starting to bother me (the common area too). I’m still stuck on the whole “school can’t be starting yet. I’m not ready.” but at the same time, I am. I’ve been here for the entire nso week and I have to say that when most of your friends are still at home and you have really nothing to do at night, it’s hard to find something to do. Especially when your computer is STILL being sent out.

Looks like it’s time to help some friends move in. Gotta go!

Countdown!

Okay, so, maybe this might make me look TOO excited to go back to school. Don’t get me wrong, I love being home in the sense that it’s SO nice to be able to not worry about classwork and etc (granted, I took a class this summer online and despite all the turmoil I went through for it, I got an A on it), but at the same time, it’s so stifling after spending a better part of the year at school doing what I want when I want to without having to tell my parents about it. I’m not looking forward to the classwork this semester. I’m taking eighteen credits worth and I’m bound to be very stressed, but I’m just looking forward to being on-campus again.

So, I’m starting a countdown. I’m sure the majority of new freshmen and other college students are doing this: (*pulls up the calender as I write this to accurately gauge the amount of days left*)

11 days until I return to Gallaudet (where I will promptly join fellow gbloggers Colleen and Meredith on the Honors Retreat).

Thus, currently, I’m in that crux when I need to figure out what I ABSOLUTELY NEED, but I have to be careful since the new baggage rules at United requires me to pay $15 dollars for the FIRST checked bag (can we talk about how ricid that rule is?). Thankfully, it isn’t set to take place until the day after I fly into DC, but it’s still so stupid. I might take advantage of Mom then, who’s coming with since it makes things a lot easier for me to bring stuff out of storage since I’m not old enough to rent a car (drat!), but we’ll see. Yet, the point of this is that I’m really thinking about things I absolutely need and what I don’t. Then, I have to think about the playstation (gifted by my brother this summer) and if I should put it in another bag or not. Oh, the dilemma.

Oh, the reading? I checked out Hot Mama by Jennifer Estep (who wrote Karma Girl) today at the library and will proceed to read that on the train this weekend and then I’m making Mom buy me Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants at Sam’s Club where it’s 5.88.

In words of Sonic the Hedgehodge (must curb that playstation attachment), Cha!

Twilight

Twilight is not just a name for the time before a sunrise and after a sunset. (wikipedia, thank you, very much!) No, it is far more than that.

I spent almost the entire summer hearing about it from one of my co-workers in my classroom; she raved about it and anything with supernatural piped my interest. She told me I HAD to read it, and I assured her I would when camp finished. Well, it’s been about briefly a week and some since camp finished and I finally got a chance to sit down and read it. I finished the first book in approximately five to six hours. Then I informed my friend, S, that I needed more. I started the second book at 10 and finished at one. I stayed up to five am reading the third book before deciding I should sleep some then finished the third book of the series this afternoon. All of this just made me want to READ more. For sure, I am going to buy the fourth book tomorrow (it comes out August 2nd) and I marked the date for the movie for the first book.

It’s scary how easily I can obsess about a series. I keep becoming giddy every time Edward and Bella did something really sweet or whatnot. I had the same reactions to stuff when I read Harry Potter. I ignored my aim for almost the entire night despite the fact that people were talking to me. Really, all of this had done was remind me how much I love reading stuff, esepcially fantasy. I don’t know why, but something about the supernatural fascinate me so much. My desire to read had restarted.

Now, it’s almost three weeks before I go back and I feel like there’s a long list of things I need to do yet I don’t know what else there is to do. I decided that I’m going to make a goal for myself to read more fiction books for myself this year. I haven’t decided the amount yet or what books, but I’m going to make a list of books to read and things to do this year. It’s so hard to believe that in three weeks, I’m going to be back at school for my JUNIOR year. On top of that, I’m turning 21 this year; my brother is starting his final year of high school and whatnot. It’s amazing how time flies, especially when I look at people who have just graduated this past year searching for jobs and apartments.

I’ll add a list of books next time. cha!!