Day 282

I interviewed Q&A person for gateway today. I don't wanna share her info here without permission (like her name, picture, voice, etc) but I do wanna share some of my favorite quotes from the interview.

"Well you can’t have freedom of religion without freedom from religion. The whole thing, the whole idea behind the separation of church and state and all that is that people get to believe and live their lives the way they want to no matter what anybody else thinks."

"And it’s not that I want to take religion away from anyone – it's that, you know, if you want to believe that, fine, but don’t come and shove it down my throat, just because, you know, it’s rude."
"You know, as far as, you know, Islam, and all that, you know, there’s crazies in every population, it doesn’t matter what you call yourself. I don’t think they’re any different than the Christians in this country. Fundamentalists are fundamentalists and to me they’re just people."

"The fifties and sixties, that's when they got their momentum. It was to fight this evil machine out there taking our children and making them smoke dope and sleep around..."

"There’s good that can come out of anything. You can always find some sort of good in whatever you’re looking at. It’s just how you want to see it."

"Jefferson went through the Bible and actually took out everything that was super natural and just left the reality stuff. It ended up about this thick." (Note: This is an audio interview.)

Day 281

I got the job I interviewed for!

But what I really want to talk about today is the site I found! I swear I wasn't intentionally looking for wedding dresses, but as I was browsing the fair trade holiday guide, there was an ad for fair trade wedding dresses so I just had to check it out. (Here's the link to the Holiday Guide btw: http://www.fairtradeuniversities.org/news/fair-trade-your-holidays/serrv-holiday-guide/)

So here's the website that I found the dresses on: http://www.celia-grace.com/

This one is my favorite:

Day 280

I'm strangely getting more pageviews per day lately and now I feel obligated to put a bunch more effort into this but my life is seriously not that interesting right now. I'm definitely busy but not with anything too exciting. As proof, here is what my day looked like:

Wake up -> Turn in job application -> get interview for said job -> Japanese class -> Gateway -> equipment check out counter -> checked the mail (nothing) -> home (I forgot my writing assignment) -> Japanese prof's office -> Oregon Hall for two more apps (one just closed, the other... well, long story) -> home.

I'm excited though because that interview is tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I really need to work the next two terms but I really do want a good job too. I know the saying, "Beggars can't be choosers," but that doesn't mean I want to end up in a job I dread going to. Is that so much to ask?

What I really want to do is tutor in writing. I'm thinking about trying to do it independently as a way to make a little side money, but I have no idea how to go about doing that. Despite how casually I usually write my blog, I am a good writer when I need to be.

*sigh* Why can't I just be an FA all year?

Day 279

I keep seeing everyone post their cute Halloween costumes and it's making me all jealous because I don't think I'll have a place to go on Halloween to wear my costume :/ I want to continue my history/culture theme this year and dress up as a geisha (plus that gives me the perfect excuse to wear the kimono I got from Japan :) ).

Pictured: NOT what I wanna look like.

I'll post pictures if I end up going out. :)

Day 278

Today I went out to lunch with my FIGlets and Professor Unno, the professor that I teach the class with. We got two huge sushi boats from Sushi Station and we pretty much devoured them. It was hard to mess them up though because they were so pretty - they made pandas out of oranges, whales out of cucumbers and dragons out of sushi rolls. I was legitimately impressed and I wish I would've taken pictures.

I came home and pretty much wasted the rest of the day which I kind of feel guilty about looking back. I filled out a job application, picked out my classes for next term and got a little bit done for journalism but other than that, I didn't get much done. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

Day 277

My mom keeps asking me what I want for Christmas and I can't really think of anything besides money because that's all I really need. "But Christmas isn't about what you need...." says my mom. Fine. I will search for non-essential gift ideas. Let the search commence...

1. Gift Cards! (not technically money, muahaha)

2. Tolkien Books (except the Hobbit. I have it already. Thanks mama.) And I want the books to be pretty because they're going to on display because they're amazing :)

(Mom in case you're reading this, there are more, just ask me)

3. A kitty :D

That's all I can really think of/find right now :(

Day 276

Gawd, I can't stand when I have horrible Wifi. I just wanted to post a few more funny posts I found on Imgur today because I'm too stressed/tired/lazy/overwhelmed to come up something fantastic and original today. #sorrynotsorry

Day 275

It's already Wednesday you guys. This week is going by so fast it's ridiculous. Tomorrow is my oral performance for Japanese. And Friday is my midterm. I can't get myself to care about anything that's not journalism or my FIG job though. *sigh* going to study. Wish me luck.

Day 274

So it's been three weeks since my first PE class and I've got to say, I'm liking it. I forgot how much better working out makes you feel and I already notice a difference from last year, even though now I have a lot more stress and things to worry about. I doubt there's any real visual difference but I feel like I look better too. I can't tell if that's all in my head or if I'm actually getting toned but as long as I think so, who cares? I'm doing this for me, not for anyone else. I'm also enjoying the actual working out process more than I thought I would too. I think it's because I have fun people to sit by in both classes (they're matwork classes so I can say sit, okay?) and I don't feel behind. The biggest reason I didn't work out last year was because I felt intimidated by the other girls in the weight room. I'm already tiny and I hadn't worked out in a while and I didn't want to embarrass myself. I don't feel that self consciousness in class and I thinking I'm getting more out of working out physically and mentally because of it. Three and a half weeks down, 6 and a half to go :)

Also, today was Sam's one year anniversary of leaving for boot camp which means we officially made it a year long distance. :D It definitely hasn't been one of the easiest years of my life but we did it and we're still going strong so I feel pretty accomplished.

Day 273

So I woke up this morning at 10:30. My class starts at 11. It's now almost 1. And I have class tomorrow at 11.

(Can you tell I'm back on Imgur by my increasing use of gifs?)

Day 272

I'm almost done applying for the Media in Ghana program. Words cannot express how badly I want to be a part of this program.

I wish I could just send them this gif as my application and automatically get a spot. I just want to skip to the interview part. I'm having a hard time striking the balance between professionalism and passion in writing. It's really easy for me to talk about the things I'm passionate about - I could go on for hours about fair trade or the importance of college - but its hard for me to translate it into writing. It's like, "Ghana people, you HAVE to let me go." I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll make it to the interview stage. I know I'll shine there. 

Day 271

 I went on a walk with two of my FIGlets today :)

I live in such a beautiful place...

Go Ducks!

Day 270

Except I'm not out partying, I'm home watching TV and drinking hot chocolate and eating Eggo waffles with whipped cream. But it's something I needed to do. It's been a long week. 

Even though I'm only taking 15 credits this term, I still feel really busy. Maybe because of my FIGlets. Maybe it's because of the research project I have to do for Gateway. I know it's important to learn how to analyze a source for credibility but IT'S SO TEDIOUS. I want to start writing stories and doing interviews and taking pictures and stuff. We worked on audio during my lab and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would even though it was beautiful outside which made me miss my camera. I'm really excited to start working with video because I think it'd be really cool to do documentary work in the future. Maybe Morgan Freeman can narrate one of my documentaries some day. 

I'm going to apply for the Ghana internship for this summer. It's a lot of money but I think it'll be worth it. Now I just have to convince my dad I'm going to be safe.

Day 269

Tomorrow morning is going to be one of those mornings where I'm going to have to set my alarm way early so I can actually get out of bed in time to do all the stuff I need to do BEFORE class. My goal is to be physically out of my bed by 9am tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

This has been the second day in a row where I haven't heard from Sam. Even though I knew it was going to happen (he's doing Army stuff, he didn't disappear, no worries!) it still feels weird. I mean, it's already weird to have a fiancé that I rarely see, but it's even weirder not being able to talk to each other. I'm not a fan. I can't wait until it's all over and he can come home for good.

Day 268

For some reason I'm super motivated right now. I've been working really hard on my research paper and I put a lot of time into my FIGlets today. With all of this momentum, you'd think I'd have a lot to talk about on my blog today, but the opposite is true. I don't want to just talk about the work I'm doing because let's face it, you all don't want to hear about the top ten events of the history of religious based communities. But that work is all that's on my mind. We had a guest speaking in my Gateway class today who talked about being intrinsically motivated and I guess her message really stuck.

I'm confident in what I want to do for the rest of my life. Sometimes I lose the drive because it seems so impossible and so far off, but then there are moments like in class today that get me going again. It's going to be a lot of work but I know it's going to be worth it. I found out that there's a name for the job I want to do - brand journalist. If you've been reading a long time, you know I have a passion for fair trade. I want to work with it and the people who make it possible.

Oh, I forgot to post this, but the website is finally done for One Fair Campus

grobert3.wix.com/onefaircampus

Check it out :)

Day 267

I will definitely not be sleeping in tomorrow!

I've been having trouble getting out of bed for my 11am class. I think it's the combination of staying up kind of late, having really snuggly blankets and my room being so cold in the mornings. 

Day 266

WHY CAN'T I STOP LISTENING TO THIS DAMN SONG?!?!

Day 265

This video is amazing but if you don't have much time, skip to 2:04. It's the best part.

Day 264

Micaela here and we're just browsing through some tumblr posts compiled by Wadjet. ( http://imgur.com/user/wadjet/submitted ) Our favorite one is way too inappropriate to post here but here are some of the best ones of the day:

Day 263

That is all. Now it's time for some Lord of the Rings extended edition bonus features. Night!

Day 262

Thank God the week is almost over. It's been such a busy week and I'm just ready to sit and chill for a few hours. Right now I'm listening to my chill music.

This is one of the songs I'm thinking about for my wedding:

And this is my "Hey you might want to think about getting up in a little bit but no rush bro" alarm:

Day 261

This is what I've been working on all day (It's the script for my issue presentation I'm gonna give on Friday)



My Gateway issue is Religious Based Communities. Religion is something that affects everyone from the most devout believer to the most cynical atheist. The same can be said of the communities formed around these ideas of religion. For those involved, these communities can provide a safe space to worship, a place to learn about and study their religion, a chance to socialize with others of their faith, and ultimately a sense of belonging. Those outside of the community are still affected by these communities – According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more people volunteered for religious organizations than for any other type of organization. The community service these volunteers took part in certainly affected the lives of those outside the religious community.

While many of these religious groups have a strong, positive impact, religious organizations have been facing an increasing amount of backlash because of groups like the Family Leader and the Westboro Baptist Church. The Family Leader’s involvement in politics, especially their stances on gay marriage and abortion, has caused some controversy. During the 2012 election, candidates who signed The Marriage Vow Pledge were given the Family Leader’s endorsement but some unfortunate lines from the pledge left it unpopular. Then there’s the Westboro Baptist Church who make even the Family Leader look moderate. Their pickets at the funerals of soldiers killed in combat made them infamous and overall they have conducted over 50,000 pickets nationwide. Their website, godhatesfag.com, also has a running tally of how many people have been sent to hell since the page was loaded. On a less extreme level, there’s the argument that religious communities shelter people, especially children, from the real world.

My goal for the term is to get a variety of perspectives and experiences from people of different faiths and backgrounds. Some of my potential sources include: a group of Zen Buddhists who live in a temple, a Christian youth group, a Jewish fraternity, a Mormon missionary and the Muslim Student Association on campus. Eugene is such an active, diverse community that I don’t think finding stories worth telling will be my issue.

And this is my favorite picture that my research has turned up so far:

Day 260

Sam's package finally arrived after almost 6 weeks so now I can finally show you all.

I managed to fit all of this:

Into this box:

The bundle of letters are "Open When..." letters. Each one has something different written on the envelope ("Open when you had a bad day at work" "Open when you need a pep talk" "... stuff like that) and he's only supposed to read it when the situation comes up. Thanks Pinterest :)

Day 259

Tonight I'm torn between writing about my feelings or just posting some happy pictures and calling it good.

Having a long distance relationship has always been hard, but tonight is the first time I've ever been aware of it causing a real strain on our relationship. We didn't fight but... it was not a happy place to be, especially since it wasn't just us missing each other. For a while there we just weren't on the same team and that sucks, even if it's just temporary.

(It's the Puppy Bowl!)

We're okay and we worked through it of course like we always do, but this was the first time one of our not-getting-along-moments was a result of the stress of being apart. It wasn't just a misunderstanding or someone taking a text wrong - that happens to everyone. I don't want to be too detailed because I know how Sam is about his/our personal life but it was something small that could have spiraled downward because of the situation we're in. Luckily we caught it and worked it out, but being conscious of the fact that there's going to be a lot more stress on our relationship is going to be hard. We're going to have to work a lot harder to keep things alright and happy.

He's worth it though. I wouldn't have a ring if I didn't think that.

Day 258

Back at school :) 

I just wanna give a shout out to my mom for helping me with laundry, buying groceries while I was out taking Kyle's senior pictures and making brownies and apple sauce for me to take back. You're the best!

Day 257

Aren't we cute?

Day 256

Booooo my post didn't upload yesterday.... Here it is:

So you know that article I posted about Jimmy? Awful, isn't it? Well it's also fake. I don't mean fake like I took the story from a fiction novel - it was published on the front page of the Washington post in 1980. The reporter who published it, Janet Cooke, even won a Pulitzer Prize for it. But there was no Jimmy. He didn't exist. Janet made him up and wrote his story from her head, not from real life.

You mad? So was I when I found out the story wasn't real. Granted, there may have been an 8 year old heroin addict somewhere out there when this story was written, but that's not the point. She lied. There's a reason that journalism isn't exactly the most trusted industry and it's because of the Janet Cooke's out there. It just makes me mad.

Day 255

Tonight, I wanted to share the reading we had to do for Gateway:


Jimmy's World
by Janet Cooke 

Jimmy is 8 years old and a third-generation heroin addict, a precocious little boy with sandy hair, velvety brown eyes and needle marks freckling the baby-smooth skin of his thin brown arms.
He nestles in a large, beige reclining chair in the living room of his comfortably furnished home in Southeast Washington. There is an almost cherubic expression on his small, round face as he talks about life -- clothes, money, the Baltimore Orioles and heroin. He has been an addict since the age of 5. His hands are clasped behind his head, fancy running shoes adorn his feet, and a striped Izod T-shirt hangs over his thin frame. "Bad, ain't it," he boasts to a reporter visiting recently. "I got me six of these."
Jimmy's is a world of hard drugs, fast money and the good life he believes both can bring. Every day, junkies casually buy herion from Ron, his mother's live-in-lover, in the dining room of Jimmy's home. They "cook" it in the kitchen and "fire up" in the bedrooms. And every day, Ron or someone else fires up Jimmy, plunging a needle into his bony arm, sending the fourth grader into a hypnotic nod.
Jimmy prefers this atmosphere to school, where only one subject seems relevant to fulfilling his dreams. "I want to have me a bad car and dress good and also have me a good place to live," he says. "So, I pretty much pay attention to math because I know I got to keep up when I finally get me something to sell."
Jimmy wants to sell drugs, maybe even on the District's meanest street, Condon Terrace SE, and some day deal heroin, he says, "just like my man Ron."
Ron, 27, and recently up from the South, was the one who first turned Jimmy on."He'd be buggin' me all the time about what the shots were and what people was doin' and one day he said, 'When can I get off?'" Ron says, leaning against a wall in a narcotic haze, his eyes half closed, yet piercing. "I said, 'Well, s . . ., you can have some now.' I let him snort a little and, damn, the little dude really did get off."
Six months later, Jimmy was hooked. "I felt like I was part of what was goin' down," he says. "I can't really tell you how it feel. You never done any? Sort of like them rides at King's Dominion . . . like if you was to go on all of them in one day.
"It be real different from herb (marijuana). That's baby s---. Don't nobody here hardly ever smoke no herb. You can't hardly get none right now anyway."
Jimmy's mother Andrea accepts her son's habit as a fact of life, although she will not inject the child herself and does not like to see others do it.
"I don't really like to see him fire up," she says. "But, you know, I think he would have got into it one day, anyway. Everybody does. When you live in the ghetto, it's all a matter of survival. If he wants to get away from it when he's older, then that's his thing. But right now, things are better for us than they've ever been. . . . Drugs and black folk been together for a very long time."
Heroin has become a part of life in many of Washington's neighborhoods, affecting thousands of teen-agers and adults who feel cut off from the world around them, and filtering down to untold numbers of children like Jimmy who are bored with school and battered by life.
On street corners and playgrounds across the city, youngsters often no older than 10 relate with uncanny accuracy the names of important dealers in their neighborhoods, and the going rate for their wares. For the uninitiated they can recite the color, taste, and smell of things such as heroin, cocaine, and marijuana, and rattle off the colors in a rainbow made of pills.
The heroin problem in the District has grown to what some call epidemic proportions, with the daily influx of so-called "Golden Crescent" heroin from Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, making the city fourth among six listed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency as major points of entry for heroin in the United States. The "Golden Crescent" heroin is stronger and cheaper than the Southeast Asian and Mexican varieties previously available on the street, and its easy accessiblity has added to what has long been a serious problem in the nation's capital.
David G. Canaday, special agent in charge of the DEA's office here, says the agency "can't do anything about it [Golden Crescent heroin] because we have virtually no diplomatic ties in that part of the world." While judiciously avoiding the use of the term epidemic, Canaday does say that the city's heroin problem is "sizable."
Medical experts, such as Dr. Alyce Gullatte, director of the Howard University Drug Abuse Institute, say that heroin is destroying the city. And D.C.'s medical examiner, James Luke, has recorded a substantial increase in the number of deaths from heroin overdose, from seven in 1978 to 43 so far this year.
Death has not yet been a visitor to the house where Jimmy lives.
The kitchen and upstairs bedrooms are a human collage. People of all shapes and sizes drift into the dwelling and its various rooms, some jittery, uptight and anxious for a fix, others calm and serene after they finally "get off."
A fat woman wearing a white uniform and blond wig with a needle jabbed in it like a hatpin, totters down the staircase announcing that she is "feeling fine." A teen-age couple drift through the front door, the girl proudly pulling a syringe of the type used by diabetics from the hip pocket of her Gloria Vanderbilt jeans. "Got me a new one," she says to no one in particular as she and her boyfriend wander off into the kitchen to cook their snack and shoot each other up.
These are normal occurrences in Jimmy's world. Unlike most children his age, he doesn't usually go to school, preferring instead to hang with older boys between the ages of 11 and 16 who spend their day getting high on herb or PCP and doing a little dealing to collect spare change.
When Jimmy does find his way into the classroom, it is to learn more about his favorite subject -- math.
"You got to know how to do some figuring if you want to go into business," he says pragmatically. Using his mathematical skills in any other line of work is a completely foreign notion.
"They don't BE no jobs," Jimmy says. "You got to have some money to do anything, got to make some cash. Got to be selling something people always want to buy. Ron say people always want to buy some horse. My mama say it, too. She be using it and her mama be using it. It's always gonna be somebody who can use it. . . .
"The rest of them dudes on the street is sharp. You got to know how many of them are out there, how much they charge for all the different s---, who gonna buy from them and where their spots be . . . they bad, you know, cause they in business for themselves. Ain't nobody really telling them how they got to act."
In a city overflowing with what many consider positive role models for a black child with almost any ambition -- doctors, lawyers, politicians, bank presidents -- Jimmy wants most to be a good dope dealer. He says that when he is older, "maybe about 11," he would like to "go over to Condon Terrace (notorious for its open selling of drugs and violent way of life) or somewhere else and sell." With the money he says he would buy a German Shepherd dog and a bicycle, maybe a basketball, and save the rest "so I could buy some real s--- and sell it."
His mother doesn't view Jimmy's ambitions with alarm, perhaps because drugs are as much a part of Andrea's world as they are of her son's.
She never knew her father. Like her son, Andrea spent her childhood with her mother and the man with whom she lived for 15 years. She recalls that her mother's boyfriend routinely forced her and her younger sister to have sex with him, and Jimmy is the product of one of those rapes.
Depressed and discouraged after his birth ("I didn't even name him, you know?My sister liked the name Jimmy and I said 'OK, call him that, who gives a fu--? I guess we got to call him something, don't we?'") she quickly accepted the offer of heroin from a woman who used to shoot up with her mother.
"It was like nothing I ever knew about before; you be in another world, you know? No more baby, no more mama . . . I could quit thinking about it. After I got off, I didn't have to be thinking about nothing."
Threee years later, the family moved after police discovered the shooting gallery in their home, and many of Andrea's sources of heroin dried up. She turned to prostitution and shoplifting to support a $60-a-day habit. Soon after, she met Ron, who had just arrived in Washington and was selling a variety of pills, angel dust and some heroin. She saw him as a way to get off the street and readily agreed when he asked her to move in with him.
"I was tired of sleeping with all those different dudes and boosting (shoplifting) at Woodies. And I didn't think it would be bad for Jimmy to have some kind of man around," she says.
Indeed, social workers in the Southeast Washington community say that so many young black children become involved with drugs because there is no male authority figure present in the home.
"A lot of these parents (of children involved with drugs) are the unwed mothers of the '60s, and they are bringing up their children by trial and error," says Linda Gilbert, a social worker at Southeast Neighborhood House.
"The family structure is not there so they [the children] establish a relationship with their peers. If the peers are into drugs, it won't be very long before the kids are, too. . . . They don't view drugs as illegal, and if they are making money, too, then it's going to be OK in the eyes of an economically deprived community."
Addicts who have been feeding their habits for 35 years or more are not uncommon in Jimmy's world, and although medical experts say that there is an extremely high risk of his death from an overdose, it is not inconceivable that he will live to reach adulthood.
"He might already be close to getting a lethal dose," Dr. Dorynne Czechowisz of the National Institute on Drug Abuse says."Much of this depends on the amount he's getting and the frequency with which he's getting it. But I would hate to say that his early death is inevitable. If he were to get treatment, it probably isn't too late to help him. And assuming he doesn't OD before then, he could certainly grow into an addicted adult."
At the end of the evening of strange questions about his life, Jimmy slowly changes into a different child. The calm and self-assured little man recedes. cThe jittery and ill-behaved boy takes over as he begins going into withdrawal. tHe is twisting uncomfortably in his chair one minute, irritatingly raising and lowering a vinyl window blind the next.
"Be cool," Ron admonishes him, walking out of the room.
Jimmy picks up a green "Star Wars" force beam toy and begins flicking the light on and off.
Ron comes back into the living room, syringe in hand, and calls the little boy over to his chair: "Let me see your arm."
He grabs Jimmy's left arm just above the elbow, his massive hand tightly encircling the child's small limb. Theneedle slides into the boy's soft skin like a straw pushed into the center of a freshly baked cake. Liquid ebbs out of the syringe, replaced by bright red blood. The blood is then reinjected into the child.
Jimmy has closed his eyes during the whole procedure, but now he opens them, looking quickly around the room. He climbs into a rocking chair and sits, his head dipping and snapping upright again, in what addicts call "the nod."
"Pretty soon, man," Ron says, "you got to learn how to do this for yourself." 

Day 254

This is the busiest Week One ever. 

After Gateway, I went to office hours for over an hour to figure out the topic I'll be dealing with for the term. I think I've got it now though - Religious Devotion in Secular Society. My goal is to find people and groups who are deeply religious and see how they balance holding on to their faith and interacting with a very non-religious society. I have a few sources in mind and hopefully I can get them to agree to do this project with me - the only problem I see happening is people not wanting to open up because religion is such a personal thing. We'll see how it goes.

I pretty much ran from office hours to meeting my FIG for class. I absolutely adore my FIGlets. I'm really excited for one-on-ones and being able to do more interactive things in class with them.

Yesterday, we were asked for Pilates what our favorite animal is (don't ask) and I'd have to say foxes are my favorites. You're probably thinking, "Uh... so? Why are you telling me this?" Well, being asked that finally prompted me to look up the "What does the Fox Say?" song and it's so... bizarre that I had to post it for anyone who hasn't heard the song or seen the music video.

Day 252 - 253

I've gotta stop doing this whole "accidentally skip a day" thing. I set an alarm on my phone to remind me so no I have no excuse. :)

So first week of school. It actually turned out kind of better that I didn't write yesterday so I can write about ALL of my classes instead of just the ones I have on Mondays.

Japanese 201 ~ Damn am I not remembering a lot from last year. The vocabulary and kanji (which if you've been reading long enough you know I already have issues with) just seemed to disappear from memory. I'm sure once I start speaking more it'll come back, but these first few days have been frustrating to say the least. Luckily, I'm not the only one struggling, so that helps my self esteem a bit.

Gateway I and II ~ The registrar would let the Journalism department make an 8 credit course, so they broke it into two "separate classes" worth 4 credits each. It's really just one huge class. Though the class seems extremely intimidating, especially considering the 52 page course packet we received on the first day, it also seems like it's going to be fun. We pick one issue to focus on throughout the term (Body Image, Animal Population Control, stuff like that) and find four stories that are related to that issue to base our projects on. It's going to be A LOT of work, but I know we're going to learn a lot and have great portfolio stuff when we're done. I have a few ideas of what I want my issue to be, but until I'm 100% sure, I'm not posting anything.

Stretch and Flex ~ This class made me hate myself today. I have zero flexibility and it definitely showed. That's why I'm not dropping the class though - I NEED to get better. Plus there's a lot of core and I love core.

Pilates ~ I am loving Pilates. It's so relaxing so far... Plus more core :D I was expecting to do really poorly at the Burpies but I did pretty well (probably because they don't include the push up part). I made a Pilates friend today too so it should make working out more fun.