My very own place

Ok, so I am on the hunt! Now that I am officially accepted to grad school, I have the obstacle of where to live while attending my MAT program. I have narrowed down the list of countless apartment complexes in Greenville to a select 9 that I will go and look at on Saturday in an attempt to decide which place to live.

With that being said, this will be my very first all on my own place. No roommates, just me and my dog. I am very excited and have been bitten by the design bug and I can't wait to start designing my own place! Expect many posts in the coming days/weeks while I hash out my design ideas as I begin pulling together things that I will use to make whatever space I move into my very own.

I think what started all of this off was my Aunt and I talking about furnishings for my apartment. The apartment complexes that I am looking at are unfurnished and therefore, Hilary needs furniture.

So far, in my possession I currently have:

* canvas drawer set

* 2 mini bookshelves

* a black lounge chair

* a hope chest

* a vanity table

* a tv stand for the bedroom

and I can get an old table and chairs that my family used as I grew up for the dining room

My aunt has offered up

* a coffee table

* a table my grandpa used as HE was growing up (for a desk)

* a shelving unit to go on top of the table for organization for my desk

My grandparents are going to let me use

* a wingback chair my grandma bought and then decided against putting work into it

* my great-grandmother's old bed

While it all will be mis-matched, I am sure it will all pull together in the end. I am currently putting together a list of things I will still need. Subsequent design posts to follow!!!!!

My sweet puppy

Look how sweet she is :)

This is what I woke up to on Wednesday morning....

It's official!!!!!!

I am officially an ECU graduate student! Masters in the Art of Teaching Program, here I come!!!!

So I have found it!

I have finally decided what SLR camera that I want. After a looooot of research, and a looooot of drooling over different cameras, I have settled on the Nikon D5000 for my SLR purchase. It has 12.3 megapixles, takes amazing pictures, has live view, continuous shooting capability, and so much more. Best Buy has some awesome package deals on this camera and I want it incredibly bad!

One of my FAVORITE things about this camera is the LCD screen that flips down and around if you need it to. Mega cool.

For more about the Nikon D5000, see here!

For awhile, I will continue to drool but I think I am taking the plunge soon. Very soon.

{in no particular order...}

8 TV Shows I watch:
1. Gilmore Girls re-runs
2. Friends re-runs
3. Life Unexpected
4. Glee
5. Private Practice
6. Grey's Anatomy
7. Say Yes to the Dress
8. ?

8 Favorite Places to Eat:
1. TACO BELL!
2. Home
3. Grandma's
4. Olive Garden
5. any Japanese steakhouse
6. Mexican Restaurants
7. Italian Resturants
8. Sushi Blues

8 Things I look forward to:
1. getting the acceptance notification from ECU's MAT program
2. a time where I know what is going on in my life
3. me time
4. mere bear play
5. bed time
6.
7.
8.

8 Things that happened to me yesterday:
1. I worked almost all day
2. I re-vamped my blog
3. I set up cookies and lemonade reception for the CM programs
4. I went shopping
5. I got paid
6. I went to a bachelorette party for Katy
7. I went out with the girls
8. I played with my dog

8 Things I am Passionate about:
1. Photography
2. Education

3. books
4. knowledge
5.
6.
7.
8.

8 Words or Phrases I use a lot :
1. Meredith No!
2. It happens
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

8 Things I Have Learned From The Past:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

8 Places I Would Like To See/Visit:
1. More of England
2. Ireland
3. Spain
4. Italy
5. Africa
6. A tropical Island
7. The northern route across the United States
8. Hawaii

8 Things I Need/Want:
1. A super awesome digital camera
2. A newer computer
3. An updated wardrobe
4. A trip to some place awesome
5. Money
6. A place of my own/furnishings for said place
7. Sleep
8. A super comfy bed

Blog overhaul....

I decided to be productive while I was at work today and re-vamp the blog a little. When I first started this thingymajig, I just knew that I wanted to blog. I hadnt really put any thought into a name, theme, or anything like that and I just went at it! The other day I decided that my blog needed to be re-vamped with a sort of interesting title (Daily Musings... really? In all honesty, this isnt a DAILY blog and I can be more creative than that!) and then of course a layout that would re-enforce that title. I am still a little iffy on the layout right now and am still playing around with it, but overall, I think this is much improved.

A note on the title: my favorite flower is the daisy :) I am trying to be optimistic about life and therefore needed an optimistic title.... enjoy!

Update on a mundane life...

This last week or so has been pretty low-key, with not a whole lot to actually report. Who knew that this would be what life post-grad would be? I feel like I am in a complete stand-still at the moment because I have no definite plans and it is about to drive me insane! I didn't want to put too much effort into a job search because I have no idea where I will be or what my schedule will look like a month from now! I still have yet to hear from the MAT program at ECU. I know that the woman in charge of my application is in fact back in the office, but she was gone for two weeks and is probably playing a lot of catch-up right about now. I have decided if I don't hear something by next Tuesday (a week of her being back in the office), then I will call or email her. I feel like my whole life is in limbo right now, and that is not a very good feeling.

On the bright side, I have had a lot of time to relax and do what I want! I have watched the boys for my Aunt a couple of times, settled into my room at my grandparent's, hung out with Travis a few times, spent some time with the family, and spent a lot of time playing with my sweet Meredith. I am a little concerned about her right now because she seems to be losing an awful lot of fur (which I know is typical in the summer time) and getting all sorts of balding spots on her chest, behind her ears, on her sides, and on her hindquarters. I think she is stressed out with all of the changes in her life (spaying, moving, indoor dog to mostly outdoor dog, etc) but I don't know how to help her :( I am just trying to give her lots of love and attention to help soothe her a bit and hope for the best. If it doesn't get better soon, I will probably bring her to the vet.

All in all, that is about it. I can't really move forward with my life until I figure this grad school stuff out, and I am not one to really enjoy the whole not-knowing aspect of life. I like to have a plan. I hope that things work out for this program, but if not... let the big-girl job search commence!

It's all over now...

So that is it.... it is done and over.

My life as a Meredith College student is over and I am struck with this overwhelming sense of fear and discomfort. When I drove home from Raleigh on Wednesday night, it hit me right around Goldsboro that I wouldn't be making the return trip to in a few days. I have moved home for now and I love the prospect of being close to family again, but I am not loving the prospect of being this area for an undetermined amount of time. Last night I went out for awhile and saw some people that I went to high school with and on my way into Beaufort, I again was hit with an overwhelming feeling of "I can't do this." I think I would have an easier time dealing with all of this if I had a definite plan of action, but I don't as of right now. There are so many things left up in the air and hanging out there that it makes me very uneasy because I am very much a planner, I like to know what is next and right now, I have no idea.

But on the bright side, here are some sweet pictures of commencement :)

(Even though I uploaded the pictures in the right order, blogger uploader totally messed them up.... c'est la vie~)

It's getting a little too real

In approximately 39 hours, I will be a college graduate. I cannot believe how fast four years have flown by. I dont think I have really had the moment when I realize that it is all ending. Up until Tuesday at 12:00, I was holding my breath to make sure that all grades were in fact in (and passing) and that I was in fact eligible for graduation. These past couple of days I have been taking it EXTREMELY easy and just relaxing by the pool, but mostly spending time in my bed because I have been severely sleep deprived.

Today I spent a few minutes with Mrs. Sharon, my scholarship donor. This woman is so incredibly supportive and completely generous. She overwhelms me sometimes with her kindness and heart. Without her, I wouldnt have been able to have my Meredith education and I owe this all to her. I just hope that one day I can do something with my life and make her proud of giving me the opportunity to go to Meredith. She has truly been a blessing.

This afternoon we had our graduation practice. It was hot and miserable and I couldnt believe how many people are actually graduating in my class. I always have thought of Meredith as a small school, and compared to most "regular" schools, it is. We have about 460 people graduating with my class on Sunday morning.

My apartment is mostly packed up and most of my stuff will be shipped out with my family after the ceremony on Sunday morning. Meredith is going to go ahead and go home with my grandparents so that I can have the chance to really clean up the apartment before our subleasers move in. It doesnt feel like I will be all moved out and at home in about five days. This is all too real.

I still havent heard from ECU's graduate school yet, but I feel fairly confident that I will in fact get in, at least I hope I do. Well, I suppose I should pack some more of my stuff! I'll be back after my ring is turned. (A Meredith tradition that you turn your class ring so the seal faces out when you become an alumnae.)

My baby had surgery yesterday

So Mere Bear had surgery yesterday. I had originally made an appointment with the SPCA Saving Lives Clinic for May 20th, but then I realized that I would in fact no be here on the 20th and we had to bump up her appointment. I was glad that someone cancelled their appointment so that I could get her in there (I dont want to deal with puppies!). She had to stay there ALL day long and then she was finally able to come home around 5 yesterday. Katy had to pick her up as I was tutoring at the time and when I got home, the poor girl was refusing to move from in front of the door! She looked so scared and pathetic with her cone on around her head. I finally coaxed her to come into the living room but she refused to lay down or anything. They did send her home with some medicine so I coaxed her to take that with some food and she seemed to perk up a little bit.

It has been trial and error since then as I have never taken care of a sick dog before. She's mostly been laying around, which is good but very sad to see when you are used to seeing her run around like crazy. She does refuse to go to the bathroom with the cone on, so I have to take it off when she goes outside to potty. I thought that maybe I could just leave the cone off but she wants to bathe herself and her energy has somewhat returned when she doesn't have this huge foreign object floating around her head, so the cone stays on except when she goes outside or she is eating.

Poor baby :(

The Battle of the Thesis

So over the past week, I have been severely battling my thesis. I was struggling to get my full draft written (it had to be 25 pages) and I had set a deadline of Friday at 11:00 I wanted to turn it in. I ended up having my full draft done a day early and turned it in on Thursday. Score: Hilary-1, Thesis-0. Later that day, I was smugly re-reading my thesis and thinking about how awesome it was, much to my horror I realized that one of my sections had been inadvertently left incomplete! Score: Hilary-1, Thesis-1. I was still able to get that section written and turned in by the original deadline, which was good. After turning in the full thesis, I get a not-so-pleasant email from my thesis advisor basically telling me my thesis was a piece of crap, had no original thought in it, and the like. Score: Hilary-1, Thesis-2. I cleared my schedule for the weekend and set out to re-write it. I managed to hit all of my thesis advisor's points and give her 14 re-written pages on Saturday. I hadn't received notes on about 10 pages of it, so I didn't want to touch those and felt pretty good about myself. Score: Hilary-2, Thesis-2. I got an email back from my thesis advisor today and her comments were more manageable and less "your paper sucks" and I think I may be able to actually finish this thing and come out in the end with a pretty huge accomplishment under my belt. Score: Hilary-3, Thesis-2. Hopefully things wont take a turn for the worse, because I am liking being in the lead right now!

A pared down list....

So this weekend has been quite productive weekend. I worked on Friday night, afternoon, and Sunday morning. I did homework on Friday afternoon and night, Saturday morning and nights, and Sunday afternoon and night. My list has gone from a huge, daunting, nebulous thing to:

* a 5-7 page myth paper on Pandora

* a 5-7 page paper on population (in conjunction with another girl)

* a 5-7 page paper for Modern Drama (I'm thinking on How I Learned to Drive and maybe one other?)

* a 5-7 page paper for Core (group has already done the research, I just have to finish it

* Reading The House of the Spirits (I am about 1/4 of the way through)

* The rest of my thesis (I have about 20 pages/25)

* 2 finals (bio 105 and bio 205).

That is all that is left of my undergrad career! While all of those 5-7 page papers look daunting, never fear because I am an English major and writing papers is my specialty! I have two weeks to produce 25 pages, on 5 different categories... I CAN DO IT! I think I will actually enjoy writing the modern drama one, and maybe even the Pandora one if I can ever get into it. I am just having a hard time actually getting into it because it is very overwhelming at the moment. I will not enjoy completing my thesis. If I were in a comic right now, it would be my arch enemy.

Well, off to knock some of that Pandora paper out!

Stuff Checked off, Stuff still to do

MAT test- check

Grad School App- check

Out of Africa Presentation- check

Thesis Draft- check

Even with some of this stuff checked off my list, it seems that my list keeps on growing! There is still so much to do and so little time to finish it all before graduation. It is my goal this weekend to try to get basically ALL of my work for the REST of the semester done (minus my thesis) so I have the next two weeks to focus on my thesis. I want to be ready to fully graduate AS a TEACHING FELLOW and on to bigger and better things. Namely, I want to move onto grad school. While no, I am not looking forward to still MORE school, I am excited for the opportunity that this additional schooling will provide me. I am very excited about the prospect of having a different schooling experience. I am very excited about working with students again. I am very excited about doing something for me and making my first, real BIG GIRL decision all on my own.

I am NOT excited about leaving Meredith. It has become my home and I have started to really realize how much I will sincerely miss this place come May 9th, 2010. These next two weeks will surely go by faster than I can possibly imagine because there is so much stuff still to do! Not even in just the homework aspect, but more in all of the different events that are still yet to come.

I think Katy and I finally got our apartment subleased for the summer so that is such a blessing and yet another thing that I can put a big old CHECK beside.

I should go and continue to work on this mountain of homework before it overtakes me!

One Month!

It is hard to believe that in literally in one month I will be graduating from college. Scary to think of the prospect! Here is a glimpse of what is going on in the next month:

Due before graduation:

* Out of Africa presentation

* Myth paper (larger)

* Read 3 more plays and 2 more books

* Write 2 reflections

* 1 overdue paper

* Reproductive health paper/presentation/project

* 1 mini bio presentation

* 1 large bio presentation and paper

* 1 larger drama play

* finish thesis/revise thesis/present thesis

* 2 finals

* plus other daily things that pop up!

Events before graduation:

* spring formal (tonight)

* Katy's bridal shower (tomorrow)

* Meredith's spaying (tomorrow)

* picture session (sunday)

* take MAT for my MAT program (tuesday)

* finish applying for grad school (by thursday)

* Class meeting

* STUNT (15th)

* Celebrating Student Achievemnt Day (22nd)

* Grandparent's Luncheon (23rd)

* Scholarship Dinner (23rd)

* English Majors' Brunch (29th)

* 10th Night (29th)

* Wicked (May 2nd)

* TF senior dinner (6th)

* Class Day (8th)

* Baccalaureate (8th)

* Graduation (9th)

Fun huh?

It has been awhile...

So I know that it has been awhile since I have posted. There has been a LOT going on and I have had no time! Last weekend all that work was scraped because I found out at the last minute that I had to apply to a program that I didn't even want to attend in order to keep my Teaching Fellows. Whether or not I get in doesn't even matter, its the fact that I applied. Long story.

This week I have had so much homework to do and things to get done before Easter. This week was like what the week before Spring Break usually is, and wasn't, this year. I thought I was getting off easy when I had no midterms or major things due around that time, little did I know that I was going to get kicked in the butt come the week before Easter. Just to give you a little glimpse, for Monday I had to read about a third of the Divine Comedy, not an easy task. I mean, have you SEEN the Divine Comedy? It's no short book by any means and I was reading the hardest part! I also had a bio presentation to do as well as a play to read and a reflection to write. For Wednesday I had a paper to do and two tests to study for. I worked literally all weekend and had no time to just sit and do homework so I was really scrambling on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights.

This weekend will be full of lots of fun things... not. I have a full draft of my thesis (which has to be at a minimum 25 pages, but more like 40 seeing as I have to have 40 cited sources... come on!) and I currently have a very crappy 6 page draft that is hardly worth the paper to print it on. So that will be my fun filled weekend.

Seeing as I have become very sleep deprived over the last few days, I have now started to drink coffee, and lots of it. I used to NEVER drink coffee and I feel like I need an IV hooked up to me now... yay for becoming just one step closer to becoming an adult.

Let's see... what else? OH! A recent wrench has been put in my working for the summer plan, but we wont go into details about that. So now there is yet another thing for me to have to figure out. Sweet. My recent debate with myself is whether or not I should go to grad school at UNCW or ECU for my MAT (Masters in the Art of Teaching) degree. I like UNCW's program and the idea of living in Wilmington is VERY appealing, but I dont know all that many people there. Also, if I went to UNCW, I would have to wait till Spring 2011 to start classes. I dont really want to wait. ECU on the other hand has a very competitive program from the looks of it, I know more people in the area, and I can start in the fall. Decisions, Decisions...