"Well at least the belt isn't striped..."

Last weekend was Mom's weekend for DG so my mom made the trek from Peoria over to Drake on Friday afternoon, so that we could spend the weekend together.  I love my mom so much and mom's weekend could not have come at a better time because I had just had a bad week that seemed to drag on forever.  Having her here was just so great, and relaxing and shopping and talking together over dinner and fro-yo was exactly what I needed.

After what had been a busy month back at school, I was glad to escape from campus for the weekend.  When my mom first got here on Friday, I think I talked for two hours straight, and if you know me, that's extremely strange.  I think I was just so excited to have someone's undivided attention and especially since it was my mom and she cares so much about me and my life, it was great.  Catching up on all of those stories that just can't really be shared over the phone, spending time together shopping and buying only clothes with stripes, eating great food in Des Moines, and just being thankful to be together in real life made for a perfect weekend with mom.

Letter Week

My goal last week was to write a letter to someone every single day of the week – and I actually did it.  Often times I forget that it is important for me to keep my friends and family updated on my life and just to tell them I appreciate them and our relationships. 

When I have problems with friends at school, it is easy to feel like the world is ending or my life is falling apart.  It is one of the weird things about being a college student that I have more than one life.  I have my Drake University life, with dorm friends and class friends and Delta Gamma friends; I have my home/Peoria life, with my family, my sister, my high school friends, and family friends; I have my Camp Tecumseh life, with all of my campers and counselor friends and relationships that I built there last summer, and even during my summers as a camper. 

As a college student with friends of the same age, there’s really only a small group of my friends that I live day-to-day life with.  My friends from camp are scattered at colleges all over, with the majority of them in Indiana, almost eight hours away from me at Drake.  My friends from high school have gone to schools all around the Midwest and some of them staying around Illinois, which is still four hours away from Des Moines. 

I’ve realized that I am really good at missing people.  I can tell someone I miss them and miss hanging out with them, but I never do anything about it.  I’ve realized this week that it really doesn’t take much time at all to write a letter, and it can really make a difference.  By taking fifteen or twenty minutes to sit down and devote time to telling my friends about what’s been going on in my life or sharing stories or wisdom, they can realize that I do really care about them and our relationship.  It’s a little bit more difficult to put in the time to care for long-distance friendships than it is for friends that I see everyday, but those long-distance friendships are just as important as any of my other friendships, and I want to care for them just as much.  

LFTs

Last semester, my sister and I used to text highs, lows, and LFTs almost every night.  Then I got really bad at it, and also didn't go to bed until around three in the morning, so the tradition and regularity of it all kind of fell apart. But I really like hearing about her life and her day and what she thought was good and bad.  

LFT meant "looking forward to."  I like highs and lows, but it only talks about the past.  We instituted LFTs because I wanted to know more about what was coming up in her life and about what things she was looking forward to and was excited about.  

This week for me is the first round of tests and papers and presentations and such, and all I find myself doing is thinking about what's coming my way after my last test on Friday is complete.  Don't get me wrong, I really try hard to live in the moment and pick out little things that are really great even when, overall, the week isn't all that great, but I think it's important to look into the future a little bit too.

LFT...

- this weekend, no matter what I end up doing

- my mom coming in two weeks

- meeting with our Collegiate Development Consultant (CDC) for DG on Thursday

- finishing Kellie's letter (I promise it will happen soon)

- Camp Tecumseh... its only a little bit away right?

- the next Wyldlife club

- seeing the CDC's presentation about our chapter and how we're currently doing in her eyes

- spending a lot of time with Michelle Lippoli or Kathleen this weekend, depending on what I do 

- having Michelle hopefully come over and hang out at Drake for a weekend cause I really miss her a lot

Top 7 things that made me smile today

1.  getting cookies in the mail from my grandma
2.  getting fro-yo with Megan and Grace
3.  getting a text from Ellie that made me smile and laugh and reminisce
4.  being really excited about National Letter Writing Day tomorrow
5.  laughing about lunch and this unknown side dish at hubbell

 6.  watching this YouTube video by myself, and then again with Ann http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5jw3T3Jy70
7.  being extremely excited about the possibilities of inkodye with Yvette

"This has been my favorite day at Drake so far."

After class and lunch today, Yvette and I were both free for the rest of the afternoon.  So naturally, we decided that we should go on a friendship walk.  Duh.  I mean, it was 55 degrees out on the first day of February, and we didn't really have any pressing homework to do, so exercise and enjoying Des Moines seemed like the best thing to do.  As we were walking out the door of our dorm, we ran into Nikki Marschke who was on the job delivering mail around campus.  Yvette and I have always wanted to steal the golf cart things they drive around in, but instead, Nikki said we could "job shadow" her for a while.  It was so great.  I might just go get an on-campus mail job.

After Nikki, Yvette, and I delivered mail to Olin, Yvette and I decided to actually start our friendship walk... after exploring Olin.  We decided that it was imperative we locate where the 3 floors of mysterious study rooms actually were and how to get to them.  Turns out, it's really quite simple.  You just take the stairs up to the second and third floors, and magically there are awesome study rooms there. And the ceiling from the first floor goes all the way up to the third floor, making creeping quite convenient.  

So we finally set off on our friendship walk, ran into Catherine who was completely pro-friendship walk, and set off on our way.  We really had no idea where we were going, and were mostly okay with that.  We had lots of friendship conversation, laughed about ridiculous things (which happens whether we're on a friendship walk or not), met a new runner friend, found where the sidewalk ends, tweeted, and then had to make a decision.  

So we were walking away from campus, and eventually needed to go left, and backwards.  However, the road we were following was not really on the same page.  After walking quite a long way, the road we were on made a sharp right turn.  Conveniently, there was a random foot path that went to the left, down a hill towards what looked like a major road.  We figured we'd go down the path, across the random grassy area, and walk on the sidewalk by the main road back to Drake.  

I went down the path first, and as soon as i finished thinking "oh man, this is slippery. i should grab onto a tree..." I slipped, fell, and slid down the hill in front of me.  I had so much mud all over my pants and sweatshirt that I was wiping it off of me the rest of the walk home.  

Although the fall was extremely painful and I had to ice my butt this afternoon, it was totally worth it.  I absolutely love hanging out with Yvette.  No matter what we're going through together or individually, we can always be together and laugh and remember that life's meant to be worthy of laughter.  I am so thankful for her, and especially within the last week when life's just been hard, I'm glad that she's always willing to be there for me.  I'm thinking that friendship walks are out of the question for our future, but maybe a friendship movie night or a friendship trip to fro-yo would be better alternatives for us.