I am in fact alive. . .

The beauty of blogging is that you get to share your life lessons with others. . .

Life lesson no. 1.: NEVER under any circumstances take 19 hours with two labs. I made that mistake this last semester and have been so busy traveling to Hades and back that I haven't had a life - let alone time to blog about it.

Somehow I managed to get through, though, and keep my 4.0. Although, it wasn't without a lot of hard work, and even more tears. Which brings me to Life lesson no. 2: Office hours are your friend. Getting an A was never a problem for me until this past semester, when I faced off against the cal 2 teacher from your worst nightmare. I went to office hours, though and in the end when I was 0.003 points from an A he bumped me up even though he didn't bump up others in my class. Hurray!

On that same note, Life lesson no. 3: Whoever brought back the A- must be punished. I hate those things with a passion, seeing as I spent the last semester skirting the A/A- border in a couple of my classes. Ex. French 223, which requires a 94 to get an A. Really, a 94?! Does that not seem unreasonably high?

Enough about academics, though. Let's move on to my over-achieving extracurricular life. I was blessed enough to make it into SAA. I love the opportunity it gives me to serve past, present, and future students! I was fortunate enough to work the Billion Dollar Campaign Update luncheon and attend the dinner as well. I got to meet the Chancellor and Lelan Statom, as well as many of the generous donors that have made our great education at UT possible. :)

I look forward to working more with SAA next year, as well as working as an R.A. in the best building on campus. I prefer not to disclose which building for cyber safety, but we all know who's the best. :) haha.

I have a story to tell. . .

Hello all! Hope you have been well. Things are good on my front. I made it through my first round of exams and my S.A.A. interviews. The results are in on the exams, but I don't here back from S.A.A. until next week so keep you fingers crossed, kay?

Now I have a story to tell. It's about a "friend" who is a shopaholic. Her funds are low and she just discovered the most perfect necklace in the world. The only catch is the price comes out to be around $250 when it's all said and done. I know, I know. It must be one heck of a necklace, huh? Well, judge for yourself:

This overwhelmingly beautiful necklace is now available at coach.com. It hurts your heart a little bit, doesn't it?

So to afford this necklace, my "friend" needs to sell a bunch of her useless stuff. First up, her VOLtastic Coach Op Art bag. It's on the chopping block for $50, so if one of you Vols wants it let me know. :) I won't lie; it's fake, but it's a really good fake. It comes from a pet and smoke free home. I have never carried it. :( I am selling it for the same price I paid, not because I don't want it but because I want the necklace more. Here's a pic:

I guess that's all!

P.S. I also have a Sociology 120 book for $50, if interested.

Better Now Than Never

If I don't blog now, I won't get a chance for the rest of the day, so I figure that it's better now, at ten in the morning, than never. So far, my day has been an epic fail. I woke up 10 minutes after my Cal II class started, decided to go anyway. I got there and then decided that I better not walk in 30 minutes late to a 50 minute class. So, I listened to the remainder of lecture through the door, like some big creeper. The whole scene had a Goodwill Hunting vibe to it and I almost laughed myself silly. :) I'll get the notes from a friend tonight. Or should I say tomorrow since it will probably be past midnight when I get around to it?

Really though, my Monday's just too busy. Basically, they go a little something like this: Wake up exhausted from the weekend. Start the Morning off right with math at 9 a.m. Continue with a string of constant classes until 6:30, at which time I get out of lab, grab a bite to eat, and then head to my Massey Hall Council meeting. After that, I head to my usual spot on the third floor of the library and study for the coming week. This week, I have a Chem quiz on Wed. at 8 followed by my first Cal exam at 9. I don't know how professors always manage to collaborate and put all your tests on one day. I would be impressed by their organization if I weren't so stressed about keeping my 4.0. haha.

Anyway, I guess what's really stressing me out this week is my extracurricular line-up. On Tuesday, I have my next round of R.A. interviews. Basically, it's just a 45 minute orientation about the selection process, but I still need to make a good impression. Then on Wed at 5, I have my first interview for S.A.A., the most competitive organization on campus, enough said.

Oh well. . . at least it's the first day of a new month and I got to do one of my all time favorite things: rip last month's page off my desk calendar and tear it to shreds. Of course, I have to do this when my roommate is gone so she won't think I'm insane. haha. Really though, I find that it's a big stress reliever to get rid of last month's worries.

I guess that's it. :) Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday,

Consumer Warning

Sunday is laundry day and doing laundry at college always stinks. Inevitably, the dryers are broken and the washers are full. Meanwhile, you're struggling to balance an overflowing hamper, a bottle of detergent, fabric softener, and a box of dryer sheets.

Honestly, there's no avoiding the first two, but supposedly there's a new product to eliminate the third: Purex's Three-in-One Laundry Sheets. So, I tried them and was amazed at how easy it was to just toss them in with the load and be done forever with detergent, softener, and dryer sheets. But. . . there's on old warning: "If it sounds to good to be true, then it probably is."

Well, once again the old adage proved correct. Unfortunately, these super convenient sheets ruin all of your clothes. They spot everything and as if that wasn't bad enough they also stain all of the armpits brown. Yuck! So, I just wanted to post a consumer warning. If you're planning on using these laundry sheets, be prepared to be disappointed.

Everybody was Snowball Fighting, Those Vols Were as Fast as Lightning. . .

Neyland Stadium in the Snow!!!

Snow Buddies!!!

Take Cover! The Fight is on!!

Snow Man in Progress. . .

Why yes, I am acting like an 8 year-old

In case you haven't been following the weather in Tennessee, I'll clue you in on a miracle: We had snow! Crazy, right?! I'm not talking about a dusting, either. It was a blizzard. . . comparatively speaking. haha.

And of course, the Volunteers know how to party on a Snow day. We sledded; we build snow men; we made snow angels; and we had an epic snowball fight in Presidential court at 2 in the morning. Then once we were all sufficiently chilled to the bone, we returned to our dorms and drank hot chocolate. All in all, it was the perfect Friday night.

The Life of Beka: Sparknotes Edition

So, I haven't been the most avid blogger thus far in 2010, but I figured you'd rather have the spark note version of my life anyway. haha. Here it goes:

I made a lot of promises to myself about the year and have succeeded in breaking every one of them. I have eaten junk food, been a couch potato, and used shopping sprees to relieve stress. I feel like I deserved to break my last resolution, though, because I have been incredibly stressed seeing as I took on too many hours this semester despite the warnings of the older and wiser. I am now trying to balance Biology 140, Chemistry 130, Math 142 (Calculus II), and intensive French 223. That comes to a grand total of 18 hours and no social life. Meanwhile, what free time I have left is currently devoted to the application process to become an R.A. and an S.A.A. next year.

To top all this off, my hypochondriac tendencies have resulted in sympathy sickness for my best friend, who just got the swine flu. So, that's my life at the moment. Cue the sad violin. haha.