Day 365 (for real this time)

The reason I wanted to wait to make my final post is because I have an announcement..... I have a new roommate :)

For now, her name is Tippi, though we're thinking of renaming her, especially since she doesn't know her own name yet. Deciding on a name might take awhile since my roommate and I have opposite tastes in kitty names. I want something like Athena or Zuri, and my roommate's pick is Truffle. Figures. It doesn't really matter though what she's called because after all the drama, she's home.

I started this blog as a form of therapy, a personal project to make myself feel better. Though that part of it didn't really work out it was a good experience. I think the problem of it was, it caused more stress knowing I had to write something new every day. I'm hoping with Tippi or Athena or Zuri or *sigh* Truffle that it's going to be more love than stress. I've never owned a cat before, so this will certainly be a new experience but I'm looking forward to it. 

I'm not sure what I'll be doing from here on out in terms of blogging, or if I'll even continue at all. But I just want to say it's been great and thanks for reading :)

Day 365

So today is supposed to be the last day of this blog, but I've had a really crappy day so it's going to be tomorrow.... shhhhhhhh

Day 364

So tonight, my roommate and I watched Her and I must say it was really strange at times, but really good. If you don't want spoilers, don't read ahead.

All you really need to know to read this blog post is that Theodore, the guy in the poster, falls in love with his artificially intelligent operating system. She falls in love with him back and they actually have this adorable relationship. The thing that got me was that a lot of people will think their relationship is weird, but halfway through the movie I realized their relationship wasn't much different than Sam and I's right now. Sure, there's an actual, physical person on the other end of our Facetime calls, but most of the time it's just phone calls and sending each other pictures and sharing things we find on the Internet. It's not like Samantha (the operating system voiced by the oh so sexy sounding Scarlet Johansson) doesn't have real human feelings. It's literally just like them being long distance.... Just for forever.

I don't want to ruin the end of the movie, but despite the hilarious and heartwarming beginning, if you're looking for a happy ending, you're not gonna find it. It's not like Samantha someone switches her conscious into a human-like body and can physically be with him, which is kind of what I was hoping for the entire movie. It'd be a little weird, sure, but definitely not any stranger than some of the other things that go down in this movie. 

Overall, great movie, go see it :)

Day 363

Last night, the boys upstairs were so loud that I spent the night waiting with my roommate for the cops to show up. It was rather ridiculous and by the time I could finally go write, I passed out asleep.

Today was incredibly unproductive, which I'm hoping to make up for tomorrow. My goal is to not leave my apartment and get my to-do list done. We'll see how that goes.

I wish I had something interesting going on in my life right now but I don't. The fiancé is gone, classes just started, no work drama. *sigh* hopefully things will get exciting soon.

Day 361

My favorite/most interesting TIL (Today I Learned)s from Reddit today:

TIL that a survey conducted in two southern provinces of Afghanistan found that 92% of respondents had never heard of the events of 9/11

TIL Keiko, the orca who starred in Free Willy was released in the wild in July of 2002 after being in captivity for 23 years. A few weeks after his release, he showed up at a Norwegian fjord in hopes of seeking human contact and would even give children rides on his back.

TIL Will Smith actually was born in West Philadelphia

TIL of Lydia Fairchild, a woman from the UK whose ovaries carried the genetics of her sister and whose naturally-conceived children were, therefore, genetically not her own.

TIL Phillip V of Spain was made King of Spain without knowing how to speak spanish

Day 360

So my "new roommate" showed up today. Why are there air quotes you ask? Oh, because she's not moving in. My old roommate was in such a rush to get out of our apartment that she misled the girl into thinking it was a one bedroom apartment. In case you're not familiar with my apartment, there's actually four bedrooms. Not even close. Luckily no papers were signed yet because with her situation, there's no way these apartments would work for her. We have no idea what's going to happen now but it's real messy. *sigh* of course. I was hoping New Roommate would stay because she has a kitty but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Days 358 and 359

I didn't write yesterday because at about 8:30 I got struck by a massive headache, the kind where you have to turn all the lights off and make everything silent. I think I was dehydrated so I'm working on drinking more.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about all of my classes yet. Japanese is of course the same, but I don't quite know with my other classes. My upper level anthropology course is A LOT of reading, which I'm hoping won't make me hate the class as a whole. My other anthropology class, the sexuality one still sounds really interesting but I did my first reading and it was a whole lot of science. Gateway seems like it's going to be a lot of fun based on the projects EXCEPT the group project. I have this awful feeling that I'm gonna get screwed. We'll see.

Days 356 and 357

I wanted to post this weekend as one big Back to School post. I spent the weekend moving back into my apartment, getting all my stuff ready for the term (including buying textbooks... ugh) and working on Sam's care package. 

I didn't do much redecorating for the term, but I did redo my bookshelf a bit.

My mom got me those photo frames and I wanted them on display so I went to the Duck Store and printed out some of the pictures I've taken. The candle I bought for myself. The cat is from Sam (he even knew to buy fair trade :) ) and the geisha ornament is from my mom. The terracotta jar is something I bought from work. You're supposed to make a wish and put in coins to help grant your wish. Right now, it's my in-apartment wedding fund :)

The main reason I went to the Duck Store was to pick up my textbooks. Nine textbooks for two classes, can you believe that?!? Luckily, the books were small, so it cost less than $200 for all of them, but still, that's a lot of reading.

This term I'm taking Japanese and finishing up Gateway. I'm already kind of over Japanese just because it's a lot of busy work. And who knows how Gateway is gonna go this term. :/ I'm also taking two anthropology classes, both of which I'm really excited for. One is Cultures of South Asia, taught by the same prof I took Sexuality and Culture from. Just based on the syllabus and textbooks I think the course is going to be really interesting. The other classes is Evolution of Human Sexuality, which I'm taking for a science class. That should be... Interesting as well haha

As nice as my winter break was at home, it feels good to be back at school. Wish me luck this term!

Day 355

I have this new obsession called Quizup. I've been playing it for hours.

Download the app and challenge me :)

Day 354

Last night was just a mess, but not entirely in a bad way. Sam and I had some couple stuff to discuss, not about cheating or anything like that, but future stuff. It's really stressful for both of us in different ways and that makes it sometimes makes it a rough time communicating about it. We went to sleep on happy terms though, and that's all that matters I guess.

Day 353

It's January 1st, the start of a new year, which means it's supposed to be the start of New Year's resolutions. I knew I wanted to make today's post about resolutions, but when I thought about what mine would be, I came up blank, so I googled. 

Exercising and dieting were common ones that came up, but let's be serious, that's not going to last more than a week. Managing stress was another big one, but that's so broad that it means nothing. Same with "enjoy life more." What does that even mean? Money was a big part of a lot of resolutions but things like "manage debt" and "save money" are again too broad. Technically if you put $1 in a piggy bank you've saved money. How would you even judge success? 

After looking at a bunch of different resolutions, I decided to choose three for this year.

1. Dress to Impress. 

There are a few reasons for this one. One, I'm finally in the SOJC and that means everyone I meet could be a future contact. I'm actually networking now! Two, I invested a lot in nice clothes this winter break so there's no excuse. And three, I've noticed I feel a lot more confident when I dress like I belong on someone's Pinterest board. It'a such a huge power boost and that's something I'm going to need next term. Noire scrubbing it for me! (Exception: Weekends)

2. Manage my money.

I know I mentioned above this one is really broad and pointless, which is why I have a few sub-resolutions for this one.

A. Between Sam and I, have $2,000 in our wedding fund by next New Year's

B. Spend less than $200 a month (not including rent and textbooks) 

C. Apply for more scholarships

It's hard to make concrete resolutions about how much I can save/have in my bank accounts because of Ghana and the way financial aid works, but I think this is a good start.

3. Make more friends.

Coming into college with friends from high school combined with being new at the whole long distance relationship thing I think made it hard for me to branch out and make new friends, but now it's time for me to do that. This one I'm excited for :)

Day 352

Part 2...

(It was supposed to come yesterday but I passed out right after the ball dropped)

The day after Christmas, Sam and I went into Manhattan for the day. We took the train into Penn Station and from there just walked around and explored. We went into the biggest Macy's I've ever seen (I think it was like 6 stories!) and of course got Starbucks.

Times Square:

From there we went to lunch at McGee's, the pub that MacLaren's (from How I Met Your Mother) was based on. That's one of Sam's favorite shows so going there was a must. For anyone who's a fan of the show, this was written in the girl's bathroom:

After lunch, more exploring and then once it got dark, we took a cab to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas Tree. 

Some nice stranger lady took our picture for us :)

We thought we left Rockefeller Center with way more than enough time to make our dinner reservation and we would have if Siri didn't screw us over by telling us to turn the wrong way. We ended up having to run and even then we were a little late.

The restaurant was a total surprise to me until we got there. Sam choice Sushi at Gari's 46 and I must say he made an excellent choice. The food was amazing. The only thing that was kinda bad was that they tried to rush us out of the restaurant, which I would understand if we were just sitting there taking up a table, but we were still ordering food. 

My friend from middle school, Otter (yes that is his legal name), met us there for ice cream, then we walked around the city for a but until Sam and I had to go. We made plans to visit Chinatown next time Sam and I visit the city, which will hopefully be soon.

Our adventure didn't end there though. We get to Penn Station in time to get on the 11:08 train to Baldwin but when 11:08 rolls around, our platform looks like this: 

We ended up taking a later train and it worked out fine, but for a while there I was stressed to the max.

I don't want to write much about Friday and Saturday because they were mostly goodbyes and that's sad. We did have an awesome Italian dinner Friday night with everyone except Sam, who was either in Detroit or on his way to Paris at that point, but the rest is sad. I don't wanna write it and you don't wanna read it.

All in all it was a really great holiday and I'm so thankful we could all get together :)