5 AM

It's five am...why am I still awake?

I've been working on lots of random schoolwork, trying to finish this first draft before my conference tomorrow (later today...). It's proving to be extremely difficult--I think my brain is mush. I should really stop taking three hour naps at 8 pm. On the bright side, I actually got my final memoir presentation done pretty early! Wooo productivity. I guess I'll just drink a lot of coffee later to make up for not sleeping. I envy my roommate over there sleeping right now.

I'm not a fan of this recent cold weather. It makes our dorm room even colder than outside almost, and most of my warmer clothes are at home. I'm huddled up in blankets and sweats right now. It can go back to springtime any day...

I'm so glad that the semester is almost over. I am so burnt out and stressed out over school. I think I will sleep for a week when I get home. I did those teacher evaluation things the other day, and as I was doing them I realized that I had all really good teachers this semester. Compared to last semester, it was a ton better. I'm really thankful for that, because my last semester teachers were really discouraging.

Last blog post! Yay! Actually, I kind of enjoyed this blog. Last semester's English blog had to be about political stuff, which sucked. This one seems more like an actual blog. I might actually keep using it if I can figure out how the rest of the website works. Ha-ha. I'll probably forget though.

This has probably honestly been my favorite English class I've taken. I'm kind of sad to be done with it, but then again, it's good as well, because I don't really like English besides getting to read.

La la la, I guess that's all.

Uhhhh

I hate coming up with titles.

SO I went home again this weekend, and decided I had time on Monday morning to drive back instead of being sleepy and driving back late Sunday night. I left with what should have been enough time to carry all my stuff back in, get some breakfast, and get to English class. Unfortunately, the traffic and rain were not on my side. I hate missing class because I always feel like I miss everything important. Oh well, can't really do anything about it.

I got here at about 11:40, so I decided to plan out exactly how I wanted my schedule to be next semester since my registration time was at 1:00. I ended up getting registered in less than five minutes with all of my classes and times I wanted--a first for me here at UT. I was so amazed at how smoothly it went. I wish I could say the same for my roommate; she ended up working on her schedule for a lot longer than me because some classes she wanted were closed.

This week is kind of crazy with a lot of things being due, having extra credit things to go to, working, and having papers to write. Trying not to stress out.

Also, being a complete Harry Potter nerd, I was very excited for the public opening of the website Pottermore. It's basically like you're in Harry Potter world and you get a wand and placed in a house (I'm in Slytherin!) and you get to read extra information from J. K. Rowling. It's kind of exciting for me haha. So that's a highlight!

Now off to go work on my poster.........

Almost forgot...

I almost forgot to write my blog, ahh! I'm usually pretty on top of this blog thing. I had a speech due today in my public speaking class, and of course I didn't start writing it until this morning. (My class isn't until 6:30 at night so it wasn't too bad). Speeches always give me the worst anxiety, no matter how many I've done or how prepared I am. I felt unprepared today because I started writing it so late, but I think I ended up doing alright. We had to persuade our audience, which was a lot better than our informative speeches because it wasn't all facts facts facts. BORING. But yeah, I ended up doing my speech on why people should read more, and over half of the class decided to ditch today (most of the people there were only there because they had to present as well) so it wasn't as nerve racking as having to speak to the entire class. I don't know why, but every time after I give a speech, I get really shaky, even though it's over. It's kind of annoying. Oh well, at least that's over with.

On to Easter weekend! My roommate and I left for our 3 hour road trip back home on Thursday afternoon after we picked up our checks from work--the weekend was already starting out well :) Haha. We had a fun trip singing loudly and talking and all that jazz. Then she dropped me off and I got to hang out with my family.  We went to the Red Box and got Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which my dad complained about but then ended up actually liking a lot, and we got some lame movie that no one liked and I honestly can't even remember the title or what it was about. The next day, one of my best friends, Kellen, picked me up and we had planned to go to Opry Mills Mall since it was FINALLY open, but it was so packed that we ended up going to the yucky Rivergate Mall instead. I got some shorts and earrings from American Eagle and she got a ton of other stuff because she has a better paying job than me. Haha. We went to eat at Chick Fil A and I ended up seeing some people I knew, so it was nice to catch up with them for a few minutes. After that, I went home and watched my brother play xbox for a few hours and talked to him about his friends and crazy things that 14 year old boys do. Saturday I did some laundry and helped clean around the house, and my cousin Brittany picked me up that evening to stay the night. We did some gallivanting around Nashville and met up with my cousin Andrew (her brother) after he got off of work. Then, Sunday morning, she curled my hair and made it all pretty. We were planning on going to church but our ride was sick, so we just ended up staying with our family at their house instead. My mom and aunt cooked us some yummy food and we had a grand ole time painting eggs and watching the younger kids hunt for Easter eggs. Then, Ivy and I began our ride back to Knoxville, and that's about it.

I feel like all of my blogs are about my weekends...hmmm. Oh well. Here are some pictures just because.

My cousin, Andrew

My cousin Keyra and my uncle Mark--painting Easter eggs :)

Kellen! 

Accounting and apartments

So I dropped my accounting class yesterday. I've gone to most every class, paid attention, done my homework, studied, and I was STILL doing completely awful in that class. It was incredibly frustrating for me, because I'm not used to doing badly in classes--even ones I hardly study for! I don't know what it is, but I just can't grasp the material I guess. I felt an incredible weight lifted off of my shoulders after dropping the class, though. I had been stressing about this class since early February probably, and the knowledge that I no longer had to worry about it is just so relaxing.  Also I get to sleep in more on Mondays and Fridays, which is always a plus.

On the brighter side of this weekend, my roommate and I signed our leases for apartments next year! It seemed like such an adult thing to do, it kind of scared me. I was mostly excited though; living in these dorms is no picnic. Since the other two girls we thought we would most likely share our apartment with kind of backed out, we had to end up letting them pick random roommates for us, so fingers crossed that we don't get any crazies. Anyway, we went on the tour of the apartments and signed a million papers and it was done! It felt so weird doing something so huge without my parents being there to say "Yes, this is what you do..." Even though I'm nineteen years old, I still feel like I need my parents' approval for these sorts of things. My roommate and I are completely excited to decorate our apartment and actually have our own rooms, because even though we get along great, sharing this teeny tiny dorm room just isn't a good situation for anyone no matter how good of friends you are.

Spring break, etc.

I'm really sad that Spring Break is over, because it was a great week (and because I have to do school work again...).  My roommate and I went to Panama City with a bunch of people from UT, and it was a ton of fun. There were a lot of us going, but we were in this huge condo, and the only issue was the showers thing...imagine a ton of people with only three showers...but it wasn't too bad. I met a bunch of new friends and got to go to the beach every day. You really can't tell by my lack of tan, since I am unable to tan properly. Oh well. We went to Pier Park a lot, which is like a shopping place across from the pier that has cool restaurants too. It was really sad on Thursday when we had to leave. The car ride back was kind of uncomfortable because we had to switch cars and I was in the middle of the back seat with nowhere to sleep comfortably. 

On Friday I got to hang out with my dad and my brother all day, which was nice. My dad took me out to lunch at Cheddar's, which is my favorite restaurant. Then we picked my brother up from school and did some shopping around for random stuff they needed. Then I had to go stay at my mom's, which was much needed because I hadn't seen her in over a month. We went clothes shopping and went to see The Hunger Games movie, which was really good despite the major differences from the book.  I then went to visit my friends at MTSU on Saturday because we wanted to see each other before I had to go back to school. I unfortunately got pretty sick there, but my best friend took care of me and I felt a little better the next morning. I'm still a little sickly, but nothing too unmanageable. I just wish I was back with my parents to take care of me. And I wish it was still spring break...I'm not ready to get back into the swing of classes and exams and papers. :(

New friends, shopping, and good food

Ahhh, this past weekend has been so good. I'm blessed with such good friends, it's mind blowing.

Friday night after work, I got to go see my friends' band (they're called Average Age Statue, and they're really cool). We had to wait for the first band to finish before them, because they played last. I thought the first band would never stop playing, but finally AAS got to play, and it was great. I never get to see their shows, since they are normally played in Nashville while I'm in school or working, so it was a nice experience. Afterwards, I hung out with my friends and met the band members that I hadn't met before, so now I have some awesome new friends. I hung out with them last night as well. They're all really funny and cool, and had me cracking up all weekend long.

Today, my roommate (Ivy) and I went shopping for spring break next week! It was exciting because everything seemed to be on sale today, so I might have bought a little too much...but I think that's okay every once in awhile. Then we went to Zaxby's for dinner, which is my absolute favorite fast-food type food. I was extremely excited to go there, because she never wants to go with me.

My weekend and other things ~

So I went home this weekend for the third (I believe) time this semester. Last semester, besides breaks, I only went home one time.  For some reason, I've been a little more homesick this semester. Actually, I'm not sure if it's really homesickness since I still love it here in Knoxville so much. Can you still be homesick if you like where you live as well? I suppose so. Anyway, I was planning on driving home Friday night after work, but seeing as the weather picked Friday to be awful and scary, I had to wait until Saturday morning. 

I had a lot of errands to run this weekend at home, so I was glad the weather was nice on Saturday. I spent the rest of the day running around White House and Hendersonville with my brother running errands and pre-ordering him some video game, and then we went to Steak N Shake to eat. We then watched The Rum Diary with my parents, which was a decent movie. Then I went to see my best friend Zack, who is lucky and already on Spring Break since he goes to MTSU. This morning I went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel with my cousin Andrew, and we caught each other up on our lives.  Then I drove back out to Hendersonville to interview my grandmother for my paper. I ended up staying there for quite a few hours just talking to my grandparents and watching tv with them. I then went home, did laundry, and accidentally took a two hour nap (which is probably best since I had to drive back). I was still tired when I got up, so I decided to drink some coffee with a lot of sugar and creamer. I think I'm starting to like coffee now...oh no! Haha.

Right now I'm revising my draft for my draft workshop tomorrow. I'm a bit nervous about having everyone read my paper, just because I always feel like I'm not a good writer. I guess we'll see tomorrow, right? Ah!

Random Ramblings

I'm not sure what to write my blog about this week, so I figured I would just start typing whatever came to mind. This may or may not work out well. Here goes nothing.
This morning I absolutely did NOT want to wake up. I mean, that's how I feel most Monday mornings, but for some reason it was worse today. After trying to keep myself awake through my incredibly boring accounting class, I decided that I needed to get some Starbucks to keep me awake for English class. I normally try to stay away from coffee--I just don't like the taste, and it's a bit too expensive. Thankfully, Starbucks makes those sugary drinks that taste nothing like coffee, so I got one of those. I've been weirdly tired lately, and I don't know why. I probably slept more than I was awake this weekend, honestly. I was productive as well, I didn't just sit in my room all weekend, but a lot of it was still spent in my bed or sleeping on the futon. I think I sleep so little during the week that my body needs to catch up on the weekends. The Starbucks is wearing off now and I'm debating taking a nap later since I don't work today. Naps are probably one of the greatest things in my life. This blog is making close to zero sense right now, so I'll just stop it here.

Good good good weekend.

This weekend, a good friend of mine and my roommate's came to visit us! Her name is Sally and she goes to Tennessee Tech. She told us that UT seems like a "real college" compared to hers, because TTU is so small. I'm so glad she got to visit, because we hardly get to talk since we went off to grown-up land in college. On Friday we were all pretty lazy because we were tired, so we watched movies and talked and laughed (with Rebecca Mullen visiting, of course!) Then Saturday we went and showed her around Knoxville! We were going to actually go to the Sunsphere because I've wanted to go there for awhile, but it was kind of icky and cloudy on Saturday, so we ended up at the mall, like typical girls. She was amazed at West Town mall, because we're used to nasty Rivergate mall back home (if you've ever been there, you would understand...) so she wanted to stay there forever, although we couldn't do that, obviously.  We then went to Target and then back to campus to watch more movies.

Sally and Ivy with me ruining pictures as always :) 

Later that night, we walked through the scary Fort up to our friends' apartment to hang out.  Our friends Shyanne and Chase were also visiting this weekend, so we wanted to see them. We all hung out and played cards and Apples to Apples (which is the best game ever invented, by the way). When we realized how late it was getting, our friend Walt drove us back to South Carrick so we didn't end up being in one of those dreaded emails about the Fort robberies and all that. Sally and I couldn't sleep so we ended up talking until about 7 am in iHop when she left to go back to good ole Cookeville. I then proceeded to sleep until 3 in the afternoon, like a champ. I have since been procrastinating studying for an accounting exam tomorrow, which I will probably regret...ah well. I guess it must be time to study!

Back home again

This past week for some reason has been really stressful for me. I didn't have any tests or exams or even papers due, but I just felt like it dragged on forever. So last night, I randomly decided to drive the three or so hours back home. Usually the drive is just really boring and makes me wish someone would invent teleportation or something. I mean, it's 2012, weren't we supposed to have that by now? Anyway, I think I really needed that drive. I was able to think a lot (and sing...quite loudly...) and it was definitely what I needed.

I've spent the weekend so far by being lazy and watching movies with my brother and stepmom. I probably should have brought some homework home, but I left in a hurry so I'll finish it tomorrow night...hopefully. Right now we're watching some movie that I cannot recall the name of. It has George Clooney and Ryan Gosling in it, though. I expected it to be good (partly because of the stars...) but it's honestly really boring. No offense if you like this movie. The Ides of March is what it's called, according to my stepmom.

I really don't know what I intended to write about in this blog, I just don't really feel like watching this movie and it's nice to type out thoughts, no matter how incoherent they most likely seem. Also, I'm not a fan of this cold weather. It can start being warm again anytime...

Going home

Sometimes it's just really good to go home for a few days.

As much as I absolutely love Knoxville, there are times when I just need my family, and this weekend was one of them. It's my brother's birthday on Monday (the 6th), so I came home for his birthday party on Saturday.

Usually when I come home I expect to be completely and utterly bored the entire time. If you lived in White House or have ever visited (I know none of you probably ever have besides Rebecca), you would understand why. Walmart is our main attraction and everyone is usually still in Knoxville (or Cookeville or Murfreesboro) when I come home.

Surprisingly, however, I've had the best time this weekend.
Friday night I went with my cousin Brittany to visit my cousin Andrew up in Bowling Green for dinner. As always, I laughed so much with those two that it is surprising that I don't have abs by now. We all caught each other up on our lives and everything like that and joked and ate and just had a grand ole time.
Saturday I got to watch my brother play basketball and cheer him on like the embarrassing big sister I love to be. Then I got to do my taxes (hey, it can't allll be fun...), and then it was time for the birthday party. It ended up being a smaller party than expected, but that turned out better than it probably would have with the younger cousins running around causing chaos like three- and four-year-olds do. We all somehow decided we were going to do the cinnamon challenge (if you haven't heard of it, it's like when you take a spoonful of cinnamon and try to swallow it...yeah, pretty dumb I know...look it up on youtube). I was videotaped by my lovely cousin Becca; here's a link if you reeeeeeally want to see, but it's nothing special. Anywho, Saturday was just tons of fun because spending time with my cousins is probably one of my favorite things to do, since it's never boring and they're just plain hilarious.
Sunday I finally got to visit my church for the first time in a really long time. It was the best experience seeing all of my old friends and pastors again, and worshiping in my own church. As for the Super Bowl...I was driving back to Knoxville throughout most of it, so you can see how much football means to me.

All in all, it was the best weekend, and I'm so glad I got to go home for awhile.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I just had to write another blog for this.

As you may be able to tell from the title of this post, I went to see the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in theatres last night. So many mixed feelings from this movie. I read the book by Jonathan Safran Foer last year in my AP English class. It is now one of my absolute favorite books. So, as a book reader, I obviously criticized all of the differences in the movie. I can't help myself. I do realize that it is an extremely difficult book to make into a movie, however. So regardless of the differences, it was the best movie I've seen in a long time. Major major major tear jerker, let me tell you. I think everyone should go see this, and they should read the book. They're both amazing.

College, future, scary things like that

Ever since I've been here at UT, the first question most people have asked me is "What's your major?" Well, being undecided, this is always sort of embarrassing in a way for me to answer. I feel like people are expecting some great, elaborate plan for my future and all that. Well, I just don't have one. I really despise the fact that I have to choose what I want to do for the rest of my life when I'm 19 years old. I don't even know what I want for breakfast tomorrow morning, let alone what I want to do for the rest of my life. I change my mind daily. Seriously, I've gone from dentist to nurse to accounting back to nurse then back to accounting. It's a roller coaster of choices, and none of them really even go together. As of today, I'm still considering accounting, mainly because I'm pretty good at math, and my accounting class lets me do fun balance sheets and things like that. I've basically ruled out the other two considered careers because I've realized how completely awful I am at sciences like biology/chemistry, and I just would rather not put myself through a zillion of those classes to graduate. So, as of now, I'm an undecided major with interests in accounting. Though I just tell people who ask that I'm undecided and leave it at that. Why does everyone want to know that anyway? Oh well. All I really want is a job that I won't wake up every morning dreading work. I want to wake up and think "Yeah, time for work!" ...or at least be semi-happy to go, you know?

January 20

Since this blog is apparently supposed to be a diary of sorts, I suppose I'll just type out my random thoughts and stuff that is happening in my life. Today I got my stitches removed! Even though they've only been in since Sunday, I was glad to get rid of them. Kind of embarrassing, but I hardly ate or drank anything last Sunday and thought it was a good idea to go to a workout class at the TRECS...yeah, not a good idea. Anyway, I ended up passing out from dehydration and hit my chin somehow. It was really more embarrassing than painful, really. There was an ambulance, firetruck, and police car--complete with their respective drivers/workers and the TRECS staff who I guess are medically trained. It was a little over the top. I met a really nice police officer, Mary, and she helped me through all the embarrassment and my roommate took me to the ER. So I've been walking around with 5 stitches on my chin all week (or a huge bandaid on Monday and Tuesday...) and getting them removed was a huge relief. The new Student Health Center is really nice and it's HUGE. So besides classes, that's about how exciting my week has been. Tonight I get to go to a friend's place and have dinner and watch movies with a few friends, so it should be a great time. Yay!

A little about Sammie...

Hello! I'm Samantha, but most people call me Sammie. I'm nineteen years old and a freshman here at UT. I'm from White House, TN, which is a small town about thirty miles north of Nashville. I've lived in White House basically my entire life and I graduated from White House High School as the 2011 salutatorian. I'm a Christian, and I've gone to a church in my hometown (Grace Park) for quite a few years. I played tennis for my high school's team, and I continue to play occasionally with my roommate, Ivy. Besides tennis, I mostly just hang out with friends for fun, going to movies or just all hanging out talking and joking around. I like to read when I have time, and I have a dream to have a small library in my home when I get older and settled down. A few of my favorite books are The Great Gatsby, Looking for Alaska, the Harry Potter series, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I really like looking up quotes by different people, and Oscar Wilde has some of my favorites. For example, "We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars," is one of my favorites. English definitely is not usually my favorite subject, but I'm looking forward to this class because it seems interesting and intriguing. I'm not sure what else to write about myself, so I'll just stop here. :)