22 Days

I was once again reminded today how blessed I am to live here at St. Edward's. Of course there was that time in my freshman year where I never thought I would want to leave Austin, and as much as I love Austin, I am ready for something new. However, there are people in this community that have played a significant role in my life during my time here at school. This week one of my professors, who is also a brother, invited me over to the brothers' center for chapel and dinner. All of the brothers that I met Sunday tonight at dinner are retired--they are absolutely wonderful people.

Tomorrow I go to Houston to interview for my visa. This is the final thing to be completed before I leave in twenty-two days. I have heard consulate horror stories so I am hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. I also found out recently that the family who I will be living with is an older retired couple with a four bedroom house and one cat. They live close to downtown Valpo and are a twenty minute walk from my school. I also found out that their home has wireless internet! I had read that wifi is a luxury in Valpo and was considering that my home their may or may not have internet. However, they do, so it will be much easier for me to communicate back to the states and keep up with my blogging and such.

That's all for now.

Tweeting Etiquette

This post is different from my others because it is rare that I rant or criticize the expression of others via social media. However, after having lunch with a close friend, at her request, I am writing this post. To all my tweeties out there I won't say that I have never been guilty of any of these, because I'm sure at one point I have, but I try to remain consciously aware of the quality of my tweets; however, if this is you, it is absolutely why I am not following you.

1. The Endless #hashtag

If your tweets constantly consist of 100 character hashtags that are not meant to be hashtags I don't follow you. Hashtags were created to put your tweet into a grouping with others who are tweeting about the same subject so that you can connect with one another, I highly doubt that there is another person out there hashtagging #ihatemylifesomuchohwaitIAMSOAWESOMEbuteveryoneisDUMB

Also if you tweet one sentence then use a million hashtags to express your feelings I don't follow you. Exhibit A:

My brother likes to make fun of me when I'm coughing and about to die #hehatesme #whysorude #justtheusual #joysofbeingfamily


2. Tweeting Every Thought

I don't mind followers who tweet consistently throughout the day as long as their tweets don't look like this:


9:10- Just woke up from a great sleep.
9:11- Just wasn't enough sleep.
9:12- My dream was about....wait I can't remember!
9:12- Guess I'll get out of my bed to go pee, wish I could remember my dream.
9:13- Peeing now...oh I JUST LOVE TWEETING. #twittterisawesome

If your tweeting also consists of constant trash talk about some girl who "did you wrong" or some boy whose "azz is thug" then you guessed it, I'm not following you.

3. The Illiterate Tweeter

If you tweet illiterately, I will unfollow you in a heartbeat. I understand the occasional misspelling, and I let punctuation slide most all of the time considering writing must be adapted to the media machine, in this case 140 characters. However, if your tweets look like this, not only am I not following you, I also probably think you need to go back to kindergarten.

if u tweet lik dis i don follo u. it look dumb no matter if u talkin bout yo boyz or dem gurlz yuhhhh? n no u aint flyyyy.

4. The #FF Overkill

I appreciate my followers who participate in #FF--it's a good way to reference other people to your followers. The time I don't appreciate it is when someone tweets their whole twitter follower population every Friday morning. It's always nice to know why you are promoting these accounts, and unless you are obtaining 100 new followers a week, all of us have already seen tweets last Friday where you also told us to follow these same people. I am probably not following them, or you.

5. The Spambot

We all hate you, except for those people who are just trying to get more followers. Go away. No, I am not following you, even if I can win a free iPad2.



In saying all of this, I am no social media "boss" and my follower count is pretty minimal. However, I do love Twitter and using it to connect with other people. Honestly, I will follow just about anyone as long as your tweets don't consist of any of the above. Like I said before, this is just a rant, but know that if I am not following you....this is why.


Don't worry, this song is completely appropriate for this post ;-) SOTD

You're Wishin' Your Life Away Kid

I don't know how many times I have heard that since I've gotten into high school, of course I prompted the statement most of the time with countdowns to life changing events (graduation, leaving for college, leaving the country). I guess for many people keeping a day count until something big happens is a form of "rushing through" life, but not for me. I love countdowns--they keep me motivated. I know that I leave for Valpo in fifty days and I graduate college in 495. I also know that it's been nine days since Christmas and 127 since school started. It's an excitement factor, but that doesn't mean I'm not enjoying each day up until that point either. Right now, concerning study abroad, it's crunch time. I'm waiting for a background check and HIV test result to be mailed to me by the end of this week so I can apply for my student visa that usually takes a little over a month to obtain...YIKES! And to answer the obvious question, no I haven't been procrastinating, all of these things must be done last minute which is super frustrating. 

I've been back in Austin for a week now and most of my time has been spent at the pub. I enjoy working as a waitress and am thankful to have a job. Considering all of my friends are still at home on break, the university is pretty quiet. Quiet is good, but I will be glad when there are a few more faces on campus each day.

I've also succeeded in watching most of the sixth season of Grey's Anatomy again---I suggest this as a viewing pleasure for anyone--even this guy liked it.

I also wish tonight that I could be home with Dad making me his fabulous hamburgers---all I know is that there was enough butter in them to clog my arteries for life...but man they were good! I have just realized how scattered and unfocused this blog post has been, sorry ya'll.

Anyways, I'm not sure what I am going to do now, maybe a little more Pawn Stars and some dinner...who knows, maybe a nice book and some editing.


SOTD

It's the End of the World As We Know It

I often find that many end of the year blog posts are relatively cliche and full of endless resolutions and goals that are made in the moment and lost by the end of the month. I've never been one for New Year's resolutions---personally I think they are ridiculous. This blog post will probably read just like any other cliche end of the year post, but I am okay with that, nostalgia isn't necessarily a bad thing.

During this past year, like any other person, I have of course learned a number of things about who I am and what I want out of life. I'm not going to recall any of these things because I don't deem it necessary--I just know that I have grown and that is all that really matters in the long run.

I made a huge decision in 2011 to study abroad for four or so months. I leave in less than two months and I am looking forward to the adventure ahead of me. When I come back, I will have ten months left of school and will then graduate from SEU. I find that hard to believe, it seems like I was just driving to Austin with my mom in the August heat. I still love the city but I am ready for something new; I'm sure after being abroad for four months, I will be ready to be back in Austin. Although I am also not scared to graduate and leave (unless I go to UT) Austin heading for somewhere completely different. As Tolkien would say, "Not all who wander are lost."

Looking at how my blog has progressed since the beginning keeps me writing. It started with a couple readers and the audience now expands globally. I can never thank all of you enough for reading my musings. I''ll end this post similarly to how my end of the year post ended last year--with all of my 2011 favorite songs.

Music:

In no particular order because I hate ranking songs:

Foster the People: "Pumped Up Kicks"

Beyonce: "1+1"

Ryan Bingham: "The Weary Kind"

Fitz and the Tantrums: "MoneyGrabber"

--LAW