Let's Do This

Tonight's post is short on account of finals.


Today was splendid, despite having to study through most of it. It really is the little moments that count. I spent a lot of today around a wonderful group of people who I very rarely get to hang out with, so it was quite a treat. It just goes to show that not only do our voices blend well together, but our personalities do as well. Despite the many moments of the day that made me smile, including lunch with my family, I have to say tonight took the cake.


It wasn't just the pancakes in the middle of the night, or even coming home smelling of bacon and maple syrup. The highlight of my day, and likely my week, was walking into the house just in time to bless the food by singing Doxology together. It gave me supreme chills.

I hope you find a moment this week to make you feel the same. There's really nothing like praising the Lord in any way He has blessed you to do so.


Witticism of the Day: It's a stressful time for all of us no matter what our circumstances. Make sure to take a few minutes of your day to devote to taking a breath and reflecting on all the blessings in your life, however small they may seem.

Later...

It's that time again, boys and girls. We're all going crazy studying for our finals/taking our finals. This also brings on that which goes hand-in-hand with studying, procrastination. I will now investigate the forms of procrastination.

Anti-productive Forms:

• Facebook: We all know it's inevitable and all too simple to check obsessively.
• Likealittle: This handy tool came just in time for finals procrastination.
• Blogging: Oops.
• Watching television: While excellent for taking a break once in a while, watching all day causes supreme lack of productivity.
• Shopping: You can claim it's for supplies, but we all know that the survival kits and goody bags provided through various outlets supply this for us and that if you go shopping it's just to waste time. If it's Christmas shopping, you should do this once you finish all your finals or go to ONE store and take care of what you can there intermittently.
• Parties and other assorted gatherings: These are acceptable as long as you do not attend for an extended length of time, but it's much too tempting to remain where the fun is, so I recommend not attending at all. You can get all your socializing in at the beginning of next semester.
• Intramurals: Sorry boys.

Productive Forms:

• Quick Errands: This includes grocery shopping, haircuts, doctor check-ups (waiting rooms allow for some studying to be done), truly shopping for supplies (assuming the goody bags failed to include necessities), etc.
• Cleaning: If you're like me, your room must be completely in order before you can begin to be productive. Make sure you don't turn this into scrubbing down every surface just to waste time.
• Exercising: This will wake you up, get your blood flowing, and fully prepare you to get down to business. Plus, it helps you work off that food you ate when you went to lunch so you could see that friend just one more time before the break.
• Meetings: As long as these don't turn into social hours, you're all good.

Remember, if you're in doubt, it's probably not productive. Also, make sure your study groups don't turn into social hour as well. Productive studies everyone!

Witticism of the Day: Dressing WAY up and staying in is much more fun than getting super dressy and going in public.

Did You Know?

This time every year I start listening to way too much Christmas music (although, can we really listen to too much considering it's worship?) which always gets my gears in motion. This morning began my annual thought cycle on Mary (you know...she gave birth to Jesus). I thought I'd share these thoughts will all of you lovely people.

It's so hard for me to wrap my brain around what it must have been like for her. I try to put myself in her shoes: I'm a sixteen year old girl and an angel appears to meand tells me I'm having a baby and I'm like, "...but I'm a virgin?" and then the angel tells me it's GOD's son?! I'm thinking I'm going to wake up in a hot sweat and pace around the room for several hours. Then I'm going to go back to sleep for a short time and then wake up and think it was just a dream. That is, until my betrothed comes over and tells me he had a similar dream. Then I think it's just a weird coincidence. Then I get morning sickness...that's when I really freak out.

Then all my friends start disowning me because I'm an unwed woman having a baby (I do not condone this behavior in this day and age anyway) and no one but my betrothed, who is fantastic and weds me to save me from as much judgement, believes what's really happening. I feel like at this point I would start having some shaky faith in what the Lord is trying to do through me which is why I'm always in complete awe of Mary.

I always wonder though, did she ever doubt? Did she ever just crawl in a corner alone and bawl her eyes out? Or was she really the woman of faith we know her as? I like to think she had a handle on the situation and rode into Bethlehem with her head held high and her heart bursting at the seams at the joy that was to come. At the same time, I still don't think she knew the extent of what was to come. This is why all the Christmas songs about Mary are my favorite.

I hope this has provoked your thought process. I'll probably continue to have Christmas themed blogs for a while, so get used to it : )

Witticism of the Day: Getting fancy for no reason is one of the greatest joys in life.

Classtastic

This post is dual-faceted. I had a topic in mind and was completely rearing to type it up and then before I could make it home to dump here I came up with something else. Fortunately for you (or unfortunately, depending if you came to this site of your own free will or if someone forced you to in which case I sympathize with you, deeply) I'm going to spill both my magic lists of the day.

List 1

Reasons I belong in high society:

1. Ballroom dance is my favorite hobby.
2. I must attend live theater on a regular basis.
3. I'd rather have wine than unclassy beverages.
4. I loooooove organizing events.
5. I'm more comfortable in a formal gown than jeans.
6. I have charishma (...I think).
7. Being classy is my real favorite hobby.
8. I prefer my men in tuxedos.
9. I belong on the Upper East Side.
10. We all know high society could use a little dose of my charm.

You know it's true.

List 2

Current Goals for the Future:

• Be in Paris for every French holiday once I can afford the incredible expense travelling to a country using the Euro can be and once this whole body scanner drama dies down.

Yeah...that's pretty much it. I just thought it would be more exciting in list format. Doesn't the bullet just accent how important it is? Don't answer that; of course it does.

Witticism of the Day: Coping mechanisms should be as diverse as the situations in which they must be deployed. Ultimately, however, you have to come to terms with whatever it is you're coping with.

GG-esque Gifts

As I begin tonight, I'd like to state that I know for a fact that the greatest gift of all was the gift God gave the world at Christmas.

That being said, I'd now like to share a new list with you all. I already gave my realistic-ish Christmas list, and now I'd like to give my Upper East Side/Limitless Budget wish list (with visual aides....ooooh...aaaaaah).

Number 1: Cook for the Cure Edition Artisan Series Tilt-Head Stand Mixer Flour Power Rating 9 Cup (KitchenAid)

 You know it's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen.

Number 2: Christian Louboutin Studio 120 pumps in Ivory

You know they're the most beautiful things you've ever seen. Beauty over functionality.

Number 3: Valentino Ruffle-Front Silk Gown in Fraise



You know it's gorgeous.

Number 4: De Beers Wildflowers Multi-Row Necklace

You KNOW it's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen.

I'll stop here or things could get really out of hand.

Witticism of the Day: This time every year people get crazy trying to come up with gifts to give to all of their friends. My advice? Skip the insanity, forget originality, and give your friends the gift they really want: togetherness. We learned years ago that when you all start buying each other Starbucks gift cards for Christmas that it's in everyone's best interest to just go hang out at s-bux for a few hours exchanging stories and reminiscing.

Stuck

It's been a while, boys and girls. I had an entire post up about the do's and don't's of PDA, but then I found it could be entirely too critical and offensive to my regulars (assuming I have any regulars). So I've erased it and will now discuss something else.

WARNING TO ALL COLLEGE STUDENTS: It's almost Thanksgiving which means the rest of the free world gets an entire week of vacation and you get two days. Since it's application/decision time for all the high school seniors, they'll begin invading the campus while you're attending class.

Here are some things to do to survive the impending penetration.

• Stare the potentials down. They're staring at you, so why not return the favor.
• Be polite to them at the same time. We have traditions here at my school that specify we must greet those we pass with a terrifying battle cry...or something. It comes in handy when surrounded by visitors. However, it quite often backfires when there's a large crowd of visitors together...so beware the repercussions.
• Assert your senority when passing by.
• Walk past in a hurry as if you're the most important person on the campus.
• When passing in a group, make sure to be loud and obnoxious to prove that you fit in on campus. I'm not really sure why, but it's showing off, which I approve of.

Just kidding. Point them in the right direction, be of assistance to them in any way possible, and overall, be nice to these people; they're the ones who will sustain the organizations we've worked so hard in our time here to ensure the future of. Also, you never know which member of your school's ROTC program's sibling/family member/significant other you're terrifying.

Plus, it's rude to be mean.

Witticism of the Day: I feel it's my place to pass along some wisdom to this coming generation of new students. Make sure you get to know the other people in your major from day one. You never know what kind of crazy things they'll pull along the way to make you feel like you never left high school! Don't be like me and not get to know anyone until we're all about to graduate and go off in separate directions.

Ode to Chuck Bass

We all know by now that I'm a giant Gossip Girl fanatic. So it should come as no surprise to you that this is what I've decided to base tonight's blog off of. It should, however, come as a surprise to you that I have FINALLY decided on my favorite character after reading all 17 novels and watching the majority of the episodes of the television version. Although the two are VASTLY different, I decided that the most dynamic both in the novels and on the show is Chuck. And that's why he's my favorite.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this decision (because it's really that important) and I finally realized another reason why I came to choose the villian as my favorite. It's not due to the fact that I always chose the bad guy as my favorite in any Disney movie growing up (although that probably has something to do with is). It's because of the real, live Chuck Bass. And the thing is, I keep rooting for the Chuck/Blair relationship to work out in the end even though it's impractical. She's wise to push him away, but we all know it won't last.

So if you see this Chuck, you should know that you're on Blair's mind despite her better judgement.

Witticism of the Day: Studying techniques are very effective, especially if the technique is to recall the material you were reviewing when someone said that hilarious thing. Just remember the hilarious thing during the exam and the important stuff should follow.