finals, day 1

6:30 a.m. Wake up to my alarm; decide that I don't want to be awake at 6:30; reset my alarm for 7
7:00 Feeling considerably more rested, get up, and stay up; commence daily preparations
8:00 Breakfast, scriptures, backpack pack-up
8:30 Head up to campus; look completely ridiculous trying to walk up the extremely icy hill at the top of the stairs
8:40 Study in the Pen Court in the Eyring Science Center
10:00 Punch into work
3:00 p.m. Punch off; take cooking final
3:20 p.m. 80 questions, 20 minutes, minimal studying, 88%! Woohoo! Return to Pen Court and studying
4:00 English final review
5:30 Take English final; 94%, and no essay question!
6:30 Settle down in the library with Jordin for more studying
7:30 Walk Jordin out of the library and to our wonderful roommate's car for a ride home. Jordin unfortunately contracted my weekend illness. I feel horrible for being the one to introduce the flu-ish into our apartment.
7:40 Return to library table and studying
12:15 a.m. Leave library, noticing immediately a significant temperature drop since 5 hours previous.
12:30 Walk gratefully into my apartment, slightly chilled but satisfied.
1:00 Exhaustion sets in. It's time for pj's and sleep.

{Post 15-hour day self-portrait. Only two full days until I'm home!}

chilled

There's something wrong with the heat in my apartment. I blame thin walls and an improperly sealed front door. The temperature in our little home doesn't top 70; we're lucky if it gets up to 68 by mid day. This lack of effective heating is especially frustrating when the outside temperature is less than 10 degrees. Needless to say, I have been layering like nobody's business lately. Brrr. Oh, how I miss the fireplace at home.

Monday Updates

-Today kicks off finals week, and I'm hoping to knock out my two easiest, Cooking and English.
-I spent most of late Saturday night by the toilet and Sunday home, sleeping, knitting, and working on not feeling gross. It was definitely a 24 hour thing, for which I am grateful. Balancing finals and the flu would not be an easy feat. I still have very little appetite however, which is okay, because my food supply is extremely low owing to the fact that I will be home for almost three weeks starting Thursday night. My nutrition for the next few days will come primarily from Gatorade and whatever low-in-flavor food sounds good. Since Saturday night, I've seriously only eaten some popcorn, a slice of apple, a small bowl of Cheerios, and a few Ritz crackers. It's a good thing that nutrition often goes out the window during finals anyway.
-If I do well on my Accounting and Information Systems finals, I will pull off A's in both classes! These are both prerequisites for the accounting program, and A's would be wonderful.
-I designed a website! It was for my last project in Information Systems, and I got to write code and use a web editor. I spent a ton of time working out all the kinks, planning my content and design, and uploading my files to the web server. Check it out! That class has brought be much satisfaction, because I am now an Excel wizard, can write programs in Visual Basic, and can use HTML code.
-I cannot wait to be home for break.

-Oh, and the Christmas decorations have been up in Physics for a while.
I'm sorry to have spoiled any peaceful or happy moments by sharing this picture. Just turn on some Christmas music and sit by a Christmas tree for a few minutes. The horror will wear off in no time.

new twist on an old favorite

I'm really lucky to have roommates who are good about taking out the trash. Unlike many college students, they don't procrastinate the removal of boxes and cartons from our kitchen trash. When they see that the garbage can is too full to fit their freshly-created garbage, they considerately take out some of the bigger pieces of trash to make room for new trash and set the big trash on the floor next to the garbage can.

happy

I just spent some pre-paper-writing time catching up on blogs, and several loved ones posted about good days. 10 minutes ago, I posted about a bad day, but I want a good one. I'm deciding now that tomorrow will be a happy day. I'm going to put effort into my outfit (perhaps my go-to charcoal knit dress, turquoise tights, and black boots), wear some bold, chunky jewelry, be productive in the morning before class, get some homework accomplished on campus, then enjoy the Physics Department student workers' Christmas party. I am going to be excited for Christmas, find things to do for other people, and smile. I'm going to walk with confidence, study my scriptures first thing, pray for the people I love, and rejoice in this season and the joy of our Savior's birth and His love for me.

What are you going to do tomorrow to make it a good day?