Turkey Day and Black Friday

Wazzup

Thanksgiving has come and gone and so has Alabama's chance at another National Championship.

OOH BURN!

You knew it was coming. Congrats to Auburn not only did they take down the Dynasty that was AJ and the Roll Tide but did so in HISTORIC fashion. Hats off to you, Chris Davis. Not too shabby with that return…not too bad at all. 

I'm not an Auburn fan, but I am really really really really not a 'Bama fan and every time I hear, "Roll Tide!" I want to puke. GAG. 

But back to my reality. 

Thanksgiving-

Still in C-dale but I was invited to a few places. Options are good. I ended up joining a friend and her family to their annual Thanksgiving hoopla with her cousins, aunts, uncles, randos (cough*me) etc. It was too many people to have at a house so it was held at the local fire station's hall. So lots of people and lots of food and lots of noise and lots of fun. A little awkward at first but I met mostly everyone and preluding all facts about myself with 'I'm from California' usually makes things pretty easy. I was forewarned that the fam could be rowdy and not to be surprised if any crude jokes were told, fights broke out, etc. 

But it was totally fine, nothing more than any family's crazy drama, like about how Uncle John made Aunt Toni mad because he went to the bar last night and Cousin Caleb just admitted to smoking in front of Grandma and crazy Uncle Dave won't stop telling his dirty jokes to Aunt Jaycie's new boyfriend, and we don't have enough pie because Aunt Kathy brought stuffing instead of pie which she was specifically told she was supposed to bring a dessert and not a side.

We can't choose them, but they're family and we all have our crazies and our petty drama. 

And they're always good for awkward family photos. So. Awkward.

I really enjoyed spending Thanksgiving with the family though and afterwards we all headed back to the house to watch football and try to digest the immense amount of food we consumed.

I then went to my Boss's house. It was a good way to end the day, watching Men in Black 3 and putting up X-mas decorations and just chatting. I was supposed to go to one more place for Thanksgiving but was never going to make it on time so I didn't want to be the awkward late girl to show up especially when I didn't at least have a bottle of wine to offer. Yikes no thanks.

But it was an all around great day of feasting and merriment. I wasn't home and was slightly bummed about it. But it turned out to be fun and relaxing to be with good company. I may had been over 2,000 miles away from home but I felt very at home with my new friends and their families. 

Friday- I partook in my first Black Friday experience. 

Pretty accurate depiction. Actually though.

Just kidding. 

But we do go out but at a more normal hour, like 8am. It was still crowded and their were tons of long lines but all the 12am crazies were back in bed by that time. Thank goodness. 

We went to St. Louis and hit up some outlets first which was definitely some good shopping and then the mall. The mall looked like some parts had gone through a war zone while some looked like it wasn't picked over at all. I got everything on my list and more (hate it when that happens) and I'm definitely going to be eating macaroni and cheese for awhile but thats fine, who needs real food anyway. But we shopped til we literally dropped from sun up to sun down and I was exhausted on the ride home. 

I went with the same friend who had me over for Thanksgiving. And it was super fun to spend the day with her and her mom, a girls day just out shopping. The people watching was also prime, as it's not only the mall but Black Friday really just brings out the best in people. Ha. Yeah right. But I enjoyed my time and got to see a bit more of St. Louis as we lunched in a cute area of town that had this Bomb-dot-com pasta. Yum. Maggiano's in St. Louis. If you get a chance, go there. I don't care if it's not exactly 5 star, it was flipping delicious and I'm probably going to have them cater my wedding. And birthday. And my children's birthdays. So good. 

But I feel like I finally found myself an adopted family here in Carbondale. I really like the family and the mom and dad are pretty funny and really nice and the little brother is hilarious and kind of a smart ass but so is my little brother so it was really nice to find a pseudo-family for the holiday. Makes it a little bit easier.

Today I did a little work and then headed out to find some cheap furniture for my apartment. Well one place I was planning on going to was closed and that led me to another and well…they didn't have the furniture I was looking for but they had Christmas decorations. And a lot of them. 

I left with a Pink Christmas tree, lights, ornaments, mugs, dish towels, wreaths and much more.

No furniture though. Oops.

But now my apartment is so cheery and I spent the most of the day listening to Holiday music and deciding which wall my tree should go against and how to hang my garland. That might be the 2nd best part of living alone. You get to decorate it however you please and if you want a Barbie pink christmas tree there's no one to stop you. Sorry I'm not sorry for my obnoxious christmas cheer.

You'll get over it.

And now I'm going to go back to watching sports on my laptop while finishing decorating instead of writing my 3+ papers due next week. 

It's not procrastinating. I only have 26 days until 

 gotta get to it.

To Be Continued!

Twisted Tuesday and Black-out Wednesday

With the holiday's literally right around the corner it's time we take a chance to value tradition and share it with loved ones with massive amounts of food, football and black-out shopping deals that are no longer on just the day after Thanksgiving but on Thanksgiving now too and afterwards for days and days and encourage literal door-busting, outrageous behavior.

Only in 'merica. 

But I can't deny, I love thanksgiving. I love doing absolutely nothing, watching my grandma cook her countless dishes (those hand made bread rolls…you haven't lived til you had G-Ma's rolls) with the utmost ease and care (she's been doing Thanksgiving for quite a few years now, she has it down to a science) stuffing my face and then taking a nap while pretending I care who wins in football (I always root for the Cowboys because I don't remember a thanksgiving they didn't play and well the Lions…nah). 

I love food. Ergo, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday behind my birthday. 

This year it's a little different. You see, I'm not home, I'm still out here in Carbondale. 

Yep.

It's not that bad, I'm not alone, I have a few places for dinner tomorrow (too many invites actually, I may have to pass on a few that conflict. I can only handle so many types of stuffing and cranberry sauce) and winter break starts in just a little over 2 weeks so instead of flying home only to fly back out again so soon, I decided to save some money and time by staying here. 

Not going to lie though, it is weird not being home. My first big holiday away from family. Maybe not that big of a deal but it definitely is odd. 

Like I said theres a few people still around, and friends who are originals. The townies as we like to call them. And last night we partook in the pre-thanksgiving festivities. A bunch of students were in town. No not SIU students but those kids who have families here but went to school elsewhere. So me and the girls hit the town.

Ok we're a little less flashy about it but it's dollar night and we're just trying to have fun.

I know I talk about how I don't know people at the bars here or really know many people at all, but I secretly love it. I love people watching, and how better else than if you don't know anyone? It's a grand time. And it is definitely one of those nights. I don't recognize any familiar faces at all when we walk in. Perfect. But we find some bar stools and settle with a few drinks. 

And things got weird. Obnoxious guys who are way too confident, girl talk in the bathroom that no one should ever over hear let alone maybe say out loud ever, talking about pet turtles named Frog and Toad, getting 'White Girl Wasted', finally getting a cute guy to buy you a drink only to find out he's actually a tool and loves the sound of his voice all too much that you're pretty sure you know his whole life story and the lives of his 3 over bearing older sisters and younger brother who he snuck into the bar. 

Why is it that when you finally think you've got a good one like this...

Dat smile though.

They actually turn out to be this…

Gag.

and everyone has the expectation when they go out of

and really it's like...

But it ended up being a pretty good night. 

And on Wednesday my expectations were…

and well in reality it went more along the lines of this…

So yeah I definitely 'blacked out' on Wednesday. And by 'blacked out' I mean pass out completely sober.

I wish my yawns looked that cute.

To be continued!

Swim Meets, Nacho Cheese and Too Much to Drink

Hola,

Here I am again, writing my umpteenth blog about the frigid, wintery, waste land that has become C-dale, aka Salukiville. It was a whopping 12 degrees last night. 36 during the day with a wind chill that brought it down to 20. Stop it. Stop. Just no. I'm over it and we haven't even hit December yet. Still no snow to play in either. Gosh dangit…

These past few weeks have been an up and down roller coaster of stressed to the max because it's like everything is happening at once to things to I'm trying to find odd jobs around just to fill my time…so much up n down makes for a very strung out Marissa.

But we finished the debate that was freaking me out. The debate was on whether leaders are born or made. We had the side of they are made from experiences, culture, environment, etc. Turns out my part, was completely wrong (i took info from the wrong article and low and behold, the stats were all wrong for what we wanted to debate…oops) so I literally BS-ed my points.
Literally just talked straight out of my ass, no real evidence, nothing, nada, just me up there with a little confidence praying that no one would question my stance. There was no rhyme or reason, I just got an idea in my head and I went for it. The rest of my group knew it too. They were like "What is she doing?? This is a train wreck! I can't watch…but I can't look away." while I stood up at the podium in front of class telling people how humor has to be taught, someone is inherently funny and that humor is indeed a very big part of being a good leader or not, those that show more humor are better leaders.

How my group reacted when I started talking...

Best part…when it came to the counter argument, no one said a thing, in fact the other side AGREED with my points.

BOOM. That just happened. Awwww YEAH!

So I managed to get away with it. Goes to show that in business and any other argument you just got to have a good poker face and no one will question you. #lifeskills #winning

Our other presentation went a lot more smoothly. We didn't have to debate this time, just talk. Thank god. And to emphasize my humor point from before I did it again, I used humor in my part, got even the really dry, monotone professor to let out a meager chuckle and I got a better grade than the previous presentation. Again I say…

AWW YEAH!! That just happened.

So I'm digging life, or at least life in that class right now. I have a project due tomorrow that I had thought was originally due last wednesday so that's done. Happy accident. Look Mom! I finished something early! I have a case write up due after break and I already read the case (who am I? I must be sick…) AND I started studying for my accounting final.

Is this the part of my life where I stop procrastinating and dare I say it…start maturing??

Me?!?! Mature??!?? Good one.

Doubt it.

But I surprise myself from time to time. 

Onto this weekend-

From Friday to Sunday we had a huge swim meet held at the Rec Center. Over 400 swimmers were going to participate and that meant families and friends were bound to be there too. Lots of flipping people. So we have a concession area and we had sport clubs run it so that they could fundraise.

One catch…the 400 swimmers? I thought they were these types of swimmers…

Just keep swimming.

Oh look at that, I seem to be drowning…save me.

Oh no. I could only be so lucky.

No instead, this is what I got...

It was a U-14 swim meet. FOUR HUNDRED 7-14 year olds and their parents in my Rec.

Ha. Perfect. Apparently Michael Phelps is too much to ask for.

So I was pretty bummed about that. Friday was a little chaotic as were trying to open but things weren't really working (go figure) and we didn't really know what we were doing (this always happens) and I had a bunch of swim mom's and dad's asking for coffee every 30seconds (no! I just started the pot! Did you not hear the person in front of you ask the same damn question?? Come on!) but it was fine. We ended up making a ton of money out of the three days and I spent probably more time than I wanted to there but it wasn't all bad.
We ended up having to do another Sam's Club run to get more food. That's how poppin' our business was. We definitely made it a worth while trip too.

This may or may not have been after running around the store in circles and getting our carts stuck and in people's way. Don't mind us. 

So that was fun. If I see another hot dog or smell more of that plastic nacho cheese I may vomit. Nothing like a concession stand to make you rethink about putting preservatives into your body. (That cheese, if you can call it that, could probably make it through the zombie apocalypse.)

Lemme tell you now, about my bar shenanigans as well. Too good of a time not to tell but being as some of those people read my blog and probably won't appreciate me telling the entire universe this story, I'll cut it short. Kinda. Meh, no it's too good. Sorry bout it.

So Friday night… I pick up a friend and we go to another friends to start the night off. That led to another place for more shenanigans before the bars. Jump into the DD's car and we head to the bar. Some people went to the other side of town but being as it was less than 30degrees out we opted for the closer more convenient one. Obvi. While at said bar, I run into people I work with, people from class, etc. We share a few drinks, sit and chit chat and I more or less lose track of my original crew.

I meander over to find them all at a near by table just talking when I notice one of the fellas has taken a particular interest in my friend. Ohh well, well, well, what do we have here? I wink and sit down.

She gives me a strained look though. Girls, you know the look. The look of, "MAYDAY". Oh, ok, got the hint, Operation: Get Really Drunk Guy Away is a go. 

But as I sit down, another friend is like I gotta go to the bathroom. Wanna join? We look at the friend in the awkward situation and she shakes her head no. Um.. ok, that was your get away card, dumdum. Suit yourself though. And we're out. Hey, a girl can only do so much, either give the MAYDAY look and help us help you or you're on your own chickadee. That's the rules.

On our way back Mayday friend goes you want a shot? Let's get shots.

Umm. Alright? 

So we do. She explains at the bar it isn't too bad but that he's getting a bit too drunk and that we should probably bounce/ditch him soon. Ahhh, light bulb, I gotchya. 

When we come back though it's apparent that he has no intention of leaving nor wants us to leave. And it is now very, very apparent he is ALL about this girl. He's not even denying it a little bit. Yikes, bro. He's touchy, and getting way too close to her, even kissed the top of her head and is basically the definition of 'all up in her business'. But it's actually kind of hilarious watching the train wreck. And boy, is it a train wreck. He spills his drink, breaks a glass and then when he orders another drink instead of calling him off the bar tender just gives him a plastic solo cup instead of a real glass. Yes, because more alcohol in a unbreakable container will fix this problem. I see what you did there, Mr. Bartender.

We finally leave. We go one way, the dude and his roommates another. We all give her a hard time and laugh and laugh about it. End up at the after party at another place. We're telling everyone about the awkwardness and how drunk this kid was. And then…

He bursts into the room and goes "Hey Heyyy! I almost lost ya!"

SHUT UP

We all look at our friend and she just slips down in her seat with her hands on her face. And the fun really begins.

The guys all know her and they all know him at this house and they are relentless. It's better than the Jerry Springer show. They're just egging this kid on, "Hey, giver her a lap dance, she'll love it." "On a scale of 1 to ashamed, how embarrassed are you?" "Dude, show us how to twerk again. Yeah, do it. No, you're an amazing dancer, don't stop." 

and well, you get my point. 

I died. So. Funny. And I did try to stop them from harassing our friend. Kinda. But it more or less was me laughing hysterically going "Stop, *laugh*stop,*gigglelaughgiggle* you're *snortlaugh* mean." and they didn't take me seriously and I actually didn't want them to stop because it was just too funny. 

Sorry girl, love ya but too good to just not let it happen.

We all went home at around 2ish(I had to work at 7. That was smart. Not..) and we're hoping that he didn't remember but figured none of his buddies would let him forget. We sure as hell wasn't letting her get away with it either. 

"You guys promise to never, ever,  EVER speak of this again, ok? Promise me! PROMISE"

Oh yeah. Never again.

I crossed my fingers. Obvi.

To be continued!

The Never Ending War...

Hey peeps,

As you all know by now, I'm a west coast, cali girl. But I'm officially living on the eastern side of the Mississippi River now so that means I'm around a lot more east coast folks. Or at least people who associate more with the east coast than the west coast.

And that battle did not die with Biggie and Tupac.

I know I know I talk about Cali a lot. A LOT. And I'm sure that it's annoying for people. I'm working on it, promise. I try to consciously stop myself but sometimes it just happens. Especially when I'm trying to stop stereotypes. Like 1) All Californians are really big lefty liberals who are hippies and drive electric cars, surf and hate on everyone who doesn't recycle and peace and free love for everybody.

Ok. That's enough of that crap.

Let's get one thing straight. Yes, California likes to recycle. I like to recycle. I like to think Green. California has a lot of green initiatives. BUTTTT I also live on a farm. In fact most of the food in the grocery store in ILLINOIS is from California. Most of the food in EVERY grocery store comes from California. So no, it's not all beaches and sunshine.

My family also owns a logging company. there, I said it. I said it for the whole world to see and I bet I may have fewer Facebook friends tomorrow because of it but hey, that's my livelihood. We cut trees for a living. And live in california. Imagine that. Fun fact though, trees are a RENEWABLE resource and I would really like people to try and live out of a house not made from wood or use anything that doesn't have wood products. Oh you say just use plastic? Plastic has wood products in it dumdum. Swear it does. Another fun fact- cutting trees often makes forests stronger than before. The idea isn't to cut them all down, but a few at a time. Kind of like a trim. Get the dead ones out so new baby ones can grow. And another fun fact- There are more acres of trees today than there was in 1900.

So next time you call me a tree-hugger or a tree-killer, try again. If anything, we're the true environmentalists because we know how the ecosystem and the forest works and logging doesn't have to disrupt that at all and most of the time it doesn't, it makes it stronger and ensures that forest fires (I'm looking at you LA) don't happen.

You've been lawyered.

As for the peace and free love and electric cars deal…I'm all for peace but I support my troops. And if free love is your thing, that's your thing, it's your life live how you please. And I drive a subaru now but my first car was toyota tacoma truck, my dad buys american and I got the sub for the gas mileage. I'm still in school, gotta save money at the pump ya dig?

Sorry for the rant. But if one more person tells me that California is just hippies and beaches I may or may not punch something or someone in the face.

This is my home. Not the beach and not the city. But still California.

To be continued!

Tornados, Twisters and Super Storms Oh my!

Howdy!

Before I get to the seriousness of today's events, quick overview of my Friday and Saturday in Louisville, Kentucky!

My sister shows cattle, I did too in high school, but she's very good at it. She got on with some big name ranchers in Oklahoma and they took her all around to Cattle shows from Denver to Kansas City and the last stop was Louisville. It's about a 3 and 1/2 hour drive from Carbondale so I was pretty excited to see her and my mom as they both flew out for the show.
It was a VERY big deal with at least 5,000 cows at this HUGE expo right next to the University of Louisville, and Churchill Downs (the big fancy horse racing track, next time I want to go just so I can wear a ridiculous hat). But anyway us Cali girls are there in Kentucky where the accents are thicker and no one says "Luey-ville" but "Lull-vull". No joke, they don't move their lips when they talk a whole lot and we stand out real bad when we talk.
But we're there just checking it out, washing cows, feeding cows, walking around in literally tons of cow crap and life was pretty good. It was nice to catch up with my mom and sister as I haven't seen them in over a month and really miss all of my family so this was a nice constellation.

My mom and I have definitely always been close, as I pretty much call her every other day talking and venting or just chatting. But my sister and I, not so much. We are very different personalities, I take more after my mom in that I like to socialize, travel, and after I left for college I pretty much turned my back on my farming roots and never really embraced the country side of my life. Not very many people know or knew that I lived on a farm in college even. But not my sister. She's 3 years younger and all about that life. She loves her cows and horses more than she does people (this isn't a joke) and she hates being away from home for more than a few days. She'll live and work on our farm forever and she wouldn't have it any other way. Growing up together, we had our moments but otherwise we'd fight. A lot. And now we aren't the most loving of sisters but it's changed. We don't fight nearly as much and I actually enjoy her presence. She's funny and witty and now that I'm not in her domain as much I think she doesn't mind me either. We're close enough that we get each other and our quirks. So even though we were amongst a ton of people and cows it was really nice to be with my mom and sister again, even if it was a very short stay. I left Saturday at noon because I storm was supposed to come in.

And boy, it was a big one.

It looked gross and over cast and windy all day when I was driving back to C-dale. And then it started POURING down rain. Like flash-flooding is a very real thing, folks. Thunder and lightening and rain coming down in sheets not drops and the sidewalk and road is now a river and you can't see out your window because your windshield wipers do not physically swipe fast enough.

And then this morning I woke up to a very large tornado warning. What?!? Tornado?? You mean those are real and not just in the Wizard of Oz?? I think we had one tornado warning in California and it turned out to be nothing, just really strong winds. Which by the way are NOTHING compared to the winds out here. The entire state of Illinois, Indiana, and parts of Kentucky were all under this tornado warning. I got a loud beeping warning on my phone and then after looking up online just how bad it was the sirens went off. Sirens, as in the town's siren to warn of danger.

So what do I do? Run to my big window and check to see if I can see anything. A big window that will definitely crash into pieces and slice me up like a knife. Just as it dawns on me that I should probably not stand next to the window I get another warning from my phone. Twisters have been spotted in Illinois. Oh goodness. I'm watching the trees blow in the wind and it's starting to get really dark.
I panic. Majorly.
I'm not used to tornados or sirens or anything of the sort. I grab my phone and my blankets and dive into my closet as I don't have a basement. I'm texting friends and trying to call my dad but I am fah-reaked out. And then a loud crash of thunder and instantly it's pouring rain again. Really hard, it's pounding so hard on my bedroom window that I can hear it from the closet like I'm sitting right next to it.
But then the sirens stop. And i can hear it's still raining, but not as hard. "Ok, relax Dorothy, it's fine, just go out and see what's happening, you can't stay in this closet forever."
And as I come out from my hiding spot, I can see blue skies and there's sun.

What. The. Heck. Just. Happened???

So no, I didn't see a tornado or live through one. But there were tornados all around and there was some major damage north of me. It was crazy how fast it came and went like that and my heart goes out to those in the Peoria area that were affected. And I guess I'll have to learn how to better equip myself for another warning like that instead of just a blanket in my closet if I'm going to live out in this area. I'm not in Tornado Alley but I'm close enough.

Let's just say I'd take a California earthquake over a tornado any day. Dorothy, I am not, and I'm not about that twister life. For those that live here, I'm sure it was not that big of a deal but when you hear tornado sirens for the first time all I could think was I'm for sure getting blown away and not to the Land of Oz.

To be continued!

Baby it's Cold Outside

Hey hey all you beautiful people.

It's November. The month that's still considered fall. It's full of colored leaves, scarves, longer beards and turkeys.
When you think of 'November' do you think of 20 degrees and sleet (that's when it's raining ice)?
Well if you do, you're obviously a mid-westerner. Because I sure as hell DON'T.

It is so cold. So cold. We had an IM soccer game last night outside and it was 30 out. And people were like oh it's cold but it's not that bad. It gets worse. 30?!? Oh man heat wave! Careful you may start to sweat a bit and it'll freeze on ya but it's not that bad...Try taking a soccer ball to the thigh in the cold. I dare ya. It hurts and stings but then you realize you're basically numb from the cold so you know you should be hurting more but you're not and then you look down and you have an oddly octagonal shaped stamp on your thigh that's bright red. Fun stuff.

y'all are nuts. straight nuts out here. It is cold and this Cali girl can not hang.

I don't mind the cold normally. I ski and I like to layer my cute wintery clothes and wear my boots with my scarf and I'd normally take the cold over drastic heat any day. But not this type of cold. It's dry and the sun is out and there isn't any snow on the ground. Like come on at least be cold for a reason! If it's that cold at least give me something to play in and don't tease me with sunshine! I checked the temp this am on my phone in bed and it said 17.

When did I move to the NORTH FUQING POLE?

I was pretty much like…

Yeah…no I'm not getting out of bed unless you're the flipping Queen of England asking for my presence at Afternoon Tea. No. Just no.

And I should have just stayed in bed because today was a doozy. 

This whole week I should have stayed in bed, it's been a long week and we only had 4 real days.

Lemme start with Tuesday-I don't have class but I do work and after moving I had to get my water/electricity, etc. all set up. Oh boy. I feel like people who deal in customer service do have the worst jobs imaginable, dealing with irate customers all day would be less than stellar. But other times I'm like 'You asked for it.' 

I fully intended on being agreeable and just making a quick 'hey I moved please help me.' click click, sign, pay and on my way.

Oh ho ho no no no not so fast!

I walk in to the City of Carbondale and got this ray of sunshine. She basically looked like Roz from Monster's Inc.

Yikes. After about 45min of trying to explain that I can't possibly be the first person to move ever in the history of all people who live in C-dale, and signing my life away (seriously? it's water n electric. relax.) I get my apartment set up with water and electric. But here's the kicker. Roz put the order in to have someone manually come out and turn it all on for the next day. What? It's 9am, you can't just get me on the list for later today?
Nope. That's not protocol.
So I can't shower, can't see and I froze literally froze in my bed with 5 layers on, using clothes as blankets and I could see my breath in the morning. I showered at a friends but i should have just stayed the night too. Thanks, Roz, you're the best.

Onto Wednesday.
Wednesday I had a test and was not at all looking forward to it. It's my shark-feeding frenzy class where the professor just calls on us at random and literally eats us alive if we aren't ready or prepared from the readings. And I had a hunch that I'd probably be called on that day too.
And I was.
And was I prepared? Sorta. I didn't completely read that article (I read the other 5 but did he ask about those nooooo) but I tried to sound smart but I'm pretty sure I just sounded like that dumb blonde from California. Welp…somebody's gotta play the part.

Yeah, yeah they do. 

And then at work I found that a ton of teams for IM's are forfeiting. Why? Because it's too cold and we don't really have a way to penalize teams. If they forfeit twice they can't go to playoffs but most teams don't really mind that either. So we're caught in this Catch 22. We want to stop forfeits but if we discipline them then teams just drop anyway. Well…now what? Our numbers are down from last year, and we haven't been able to run 1/2 of the tourneys and leagues that we normally do because of the low turn outs.

On top of all that, we've been dealing with a scheduling nightmare with our online system and I am pretty much to blame. I don't know the system that well and I did something, pushed a button, marked the wrong check box, something bad and made it so that some soccer leagues got real screwed up. And we didn't know of the problem until after play resumed. So now it's really hard to go back and try to fix everything since it's already started. I totally take the blame, and we sorta were able to find a good compromise. But it was a learning experience and I got a talking to. I didn't ask questions and I just took too much initiative. I do have a problem with knowing when to ask for help, because I don't want to come off like I can't handle it or am incompetent. But then I do something wrong without knowing it and well, Ta-Da, I manage to pull a 'Marissa' and spend way too much time and energy fixing it when I should of just asked in the first place.

What happened? Am I cursed? Why is it that when I show up that it seems like all goes to the crapper? Ok the 2nd one, ya all me. I'll take the blame, I messed up, my b, sorry, won't happen again. 

But the rest? I'm new, and just learning and maybe word got out that this dumb blonde was coming to town and they were like 'We're out'. Some of our leagues have just failed miserably. Tennis for example…the champion won via forfeit. Forfeit really? They didn't even want to play the championship game?? And how do I even START trying to fix that?!?!?!

So I'm not really sure how or what to do so that we can get back on track. Because no one knows how we got off track. Should be a fun project…fudge-sticles.

The one up point of yesterday was that I registered to be a basketball official in the community. I'll mostly get middle school and lower level high school but I am so excited to get back into officiating. That's what started my passion for this field and I have missed it. A lot. Going over videos and case plays, I'm getting super excited but super nervous since I haven't officiated in so long. And I'm a head case, I get so nervous before games it's stupid. Really though, ask my dad, he absolutely HATES how I get because my confidence is pretty low when it comes down to it. I second guess everything and in officiating if you blow the whistle you better have a good reason cuz everyone is looking at YOU. and people don't like it when you go "Um…actually, I don't know, maybe uh…JUST KIDDING!" 

Ya that don't fly.

I've always been that way from every competitive game from middle school to high school to college IM games to coaching to reffing to class, group projects, tests, you name it. I'm weird. I'm way too competitive and I'm a thinker and I over think absolutely everything.

But what got me about officiating is that I get to watch my favorite sport from the best seat in the house. The floor. And I'm not just spectating (I'm sure all the officials out there just groaned a little) or really at all, I'm apart of the game, I'm there at every play, shot, pass, dribble. And if I'm good, I'm invisible. Every good game you've seen you don't even remember the ref, right? But every bad game it's always their fault, from a bad call, to a no call, to whatever it's a loveless deal.
But I love it.
And yes, I am nervous but also excited to get back into it. And I'll be making some money so that's always a plus too.

Tomorrow I leave for Louisville, KY to see my mom and my sister! Can't wait to visit them :)

To be continued!

Coming to you, LIVE from...

MY NEW APARTMENT!

I am officially living on my own now!

After some consideration and a few too many stressful weeks, I decided that if I can't separate work from home then I'd best take myself out of the situation. And Bridge was cool with that, and I thank her for being so understanding. I guess I'm not that good at adjusting as I'd previously thought so I think we both realized it's for the best.

The hunt for the apartment took awhile though. Gosh. Don't ever try to find a place to move into mid semester. There's NOTHING out there. Well no, not nothing but for as many creepy, dirty, sketchy apartments (one place the manager told me that my neighbor was a real nice guy, older but had been out of prison for 9 years so I wouldn't have any problems…umm. ya sure. NO.) I saw I was like…

But then….

I found it.

I found THE place.

And it was like…

I was super excited and happy with it.
It's big. It's clean. It's close to work and school. It's affordable (let's be real, anything isn't as bad as Cali prices). It has in-house washer n dryer. And a dishwasher. Saaaweeeeeet!

Done, deal, sign it, initial it, wrap it up, I'll take it.

Moving was kind of a pain as it always is for everyone but I had a few friends help me this morning with the bigger stuff like my bed and a couch and chair. Actually it was my fellow GA buddy with a truck, Brian and then HotHead. Ya, I know right?? Shocking. HotHead offered to help me move when I had seen him out and since my other friend wasn't able to, I reluctantly asked him if he'd mind. He said Ya, ok. And he even got up early for me. What a sweet guy. (sarcasm. but really though, I was appreciative.) Although he helped out it wasn't a day without the teasing and making fun of me. He particularly enjoyed how I managed to think I locked myself out of the apartment, when really the door handle just needed to be jiggled a little bit more. Oops. Blame it on the blonde showing through on that one. And they both loved to complain about how much stuff I had and would say 'God, typical girl.', 'I don't think you have enough shoes.' as they proceeded to carry in 3 large rubbermaid tubs of shoes, 'Do you own enough pink stuff?', 'What is this, even?' (it was my makeup organizer, sheesh) 'How do you own this much useless crap??','You have a suitcase full of JUST dresses?? Why do you need that many??!?' etc.
Moral of the story…Just get men to help with the heavy lifting. And nothing else. Not worth it.

We then went to my boss's house as he had just bought new furniture and said I could use his old couches. I'm more or less just storing his furniture for him but hey, that's ok and I get a sweet white leather couch and recliner set. It may look a little like a 90's love shack up in here with the leather and posters on the wall but hey, it's free and comfy, I'll take it.

Now off to Target to get some more supplies and cute bathroom decor and a lamp or two and then it's homework *coughwatchTheWalkingDeadandpretendtodohomeworkcough* time.

To Be Continued!

Also, Happy Veteran's Day! Thank you to all those who have served and are currently serving. We all owe you so much more than one day per year for your sacrifices and hard work. So THANK YOU!

Goal Oriented

'Ello, guvnah. (Hello, governor)

Why the british accent? Because I just got back from watching SO MUCH soccer I can't help but talk in a british accent. Me and one of my undergrad staff traveled to Columbus, Ohio for the Region III Women's Soccer tournament. Kind of the same deal as the flag football tourney at Notre Dame, just revolving around soccer.
Whoa.
There were so many soccer balls, and chants, and dog piles, and goal celebrations, or no celebrations at all because no one scores, and tears and broken noses, and blood, and headers, strikers, and goal keepers kicked in the face, and screaming midfielders, and slide tackles, and cleats, and shin guards, and upsets, and college girls running around in 40 degree weather in short sleeve shirts and soccer shorts, I had ever seen in my life…

OUCH

While the tourney was pretty fun, it was a lot smaller than the flag football tourney. We only had 8 staff members total, and it kinda ran itself. There weren't any refs competing for the bid to national's, only teams playing and the craziest part of the tourney was choosing players to be on all tournament. And I didn't have to do that, I was just operational staff meaning I was the field marshall. So I got to sit and watch countless hours of soccer, keep score, track shots on goal and corner kicks. Pretty easy when the highest scoring game you have is 3-1. But I did get to meet some more people within the region. One of the women working the tourney turned out to be from Arizona. So Region IV just like me. She's professional staff and had been working at the University of Arizona for the last 20+ years AND she worked with my aunt! The super cool aunt who got started in Rec too. Like whoaaa!!
More small world instances. Crazy how everyone is interconnected to someone, even when I'm 2,100 miles away. Just. Crazyyy. But crazy cool and I'm glad she's close by now so that we can see each other at more of these events and reminisce about the good ol' days of Region IV.
But it was nice not to be so intimidated by all the people this time around. And it wasn't so cliquey. We all hung out together, we all laughed and joked (more often than not it was AT me because I managed to screw up and lose a ball, oops, imagine that) together and pretty much were together for the entirety of the time. And I loved it. I didn't have to rely on my staff to introduce me to anyone, I could, for the most part, handle the operational duties like manual labor, going out and checking Columbus the city out with them and I LOVED just sitting back watching some footy and kicking around an extra ball from time to time. Oh and did I mention we were at Ohio State.

Ya. Right by the stadium. THAT stadium. Not in it, but next to it on beautiful soccer fields. (i did peek inside and it's pretty impressive up close and personal too) And my little brother LOVES Ohio State and really wants to go there, so of course I went to the bookstore and dropped a pretty penny on his xmas gifts. (It's a good thing he's my favorite brother)

The only down side was that it was cold again. I was prepared though and had a TON of layers on. Still was cold and slightly miserable at times but otherwise it wasn't too too bad.. Def not as cold as Notre Dame but still pretty chilly.

Probably the highlight tho was that I also got to see some family of mine that happens to live in Columbus. They're my mom's cousins and I remember them from various family get togethers like birthdays and weddings, and we weren't the closest of family members as they're extended. I didn't really know them when younger, but it makes sense, usually that happens.
But these cousins were very supportive when my grandfather was ill and in the hospital. Everyone loved him and every family member, from 4th cousins twice removed to those much more close and legit came and tried to console, support, offer love. I still tear up thinking about it. We miss him a lot.

But to get to spend an evening with my family that knew him and that we had those shared memories was really nice, even if it did make me a little more home sick. We chatted about school and work and how my parents and family were doing, etc. And it was a great time catching up. The little girls who were just babies when I first met them are grown and in their early teens now but they are funny and boy crazy and all about swim team and dance recitals. The mom, my mom's actual cousin is very sweet and offered me to come out whenever need be. Which even if I don't go often, is still nice to just know that I could go. It's nice to be reminded that I do have some family out here, no they aren't super close but they're only a train ride or 1/2 day car trip away. That's do-able.

Now we're back in Carbondale and back on that grind. I have a 15pg paper to write by tomorrow and about 5 bajillion things to do before then too. Love it. Friday can't come soon enough!

To Be Continued!