Everyone is a potential lunatic.

Including me.  Or so Natalie Tran has taught me.

Jess, Noah, and I have been looking around town lately for houses.

Wait, I just started this blog out bluntly.  Let’s start again:

Two weeks ago, it dawned on me that leases for houses and apartments are signed around October, and I suddenly found myself in panic mode to start looking for off campus housing for next year.  Cue crazy plans and drama and hours of searching and falling from plan A to B to A again to C to D.

Now, before you ask me why I’d want to live off campus even though I absolutely love it here in 1 North, I’ll tell you.  First, it’s cheaper.  About four thousand dollars per year cheaper.  Second, I will no longer have to take out student loans, which means I could possibly graduate with only 12,000 dollars of debt.  Freaking spectacular, really.  Third, ResLife really messed around with my dorm house over this summer, switching rooms, suddenly adding room mates, turning our dorms into offices and then placing us in the Romance Language house (when literally 90% of the house is in German), et cetera.  So, all of us in 1 North have been looking into moving out for the next school year.

After a lot of my plans fell through, it ended up being Jess, Noah, and me looking for an apartment or house together, and Jess ended up getting in touch with this really nice guy who rents out houses three blocks from campus.  We found out that he had three three-bedroom houses for rent next school year, and next thing we know, a group of nine of us from 1 North was on its way to tour through these houses.  And you know what?  They were nice.

Sure, not the greatest houses in the history of mankind, but definitely nice.  The price, around 700 dollars per month (then split three ways) is a good place to start, the landlord is incredibly nice and quick to fix any problems (we talked to the tenants about this), and the house has lots of perks.  A brand new washer and dryer, the option to paint any room whichever colour you’d like, a basement with plenty of storage space, two bathrooms, a kitchen with stove and fridge, dining room, living room, and hard-wood floors!  We even have parking in the back of the house so that we won’t have to parallel park on the street, though admittedly, I’ve gotten pretty boss at parallel parking over the past year.

But we all three really liked it both times that we toured one of the houses, and after some talking with parents…

We’re ready to sign the lease!!

That’s right, kids.  I very may be signing a lease soon (if no one beats me to it) for my very first house!  It’s beyond exciting, and Jess, Noah, and I have already started talking about furnishings and paint colours.  I’m fairly sure that I want to paint my room this pumpkin/rust/brown colour that I found on Apartment Therapy.  It looks so rich and beautiful, which will be great with my all brown, violet, rust, and green décor.  Noah’s room has wood panelling that he would end up covering with posters, and Jess is perusing the different colours of purples to decide what she wants.

But we’re extremely excited, and I thought I’d share some of the fun news.  I’ll keep all of you posted as new developments come our way!

“Come away with me in the night,

Come away with me

And I will write you a song.”

–Norah Jones, Come Away With Me

Read Full Post »

Settled back in.

It’s storming.  One of those off and on rains where thunder rumbles in a lower pitch than normal, far out, warning you that the drizzle could pick back up at any moment and then thrash at your windows, knock you down.  The sky, now dark, was the orange of sunset through storm clouds that makes you wonder if there will be a tornado, but you just want to sleep or stare at it instead.  It’s one of those evenings.

Life has settled back down for me at uni.  Classes have picked up, and I’m facing an exam in every class within one week of each other, and now it’s the mad game of reading every chapter that I had put off.  I joined Ceilidh (pronounced Kayleigh) club, which is Irish dancing, and that’s been enjoyable.  Difficult, of course–muscle memory doesn’t just come on it’s own–but enjoyable none the less.  And I rearranged my furniture yesterday to deloft my bed and get a more comfortable layout (yes, there will eventually be pictures).

Today was one of those big visit days on campus where all of the high school seniors come in to tour campus and think about applying, which means that I spent nearly an hour and a half giving tours to families.  It’s one of my favourite activities on campus, and I want to apply to give full campus tours next year (hey, I’m technically a professional tour-guide because of my work–they’ll have to hire me!).  What’s really cool about Truman is that there will be people at each dorm to give a personalised tour of said dorm with just one family at a time; it’s a major improvement over the schools that will take twenty people in a group to see a couple places.  The tours were so much fun, too.  I had great groups of people, including a group of two best-friends who had forgone bringing their parents along for the visit.  They saw my Skittles machine and freaked out, so I let them put in coins to get candy, and when the tour was going to be over, they asked if it had to be over because they were enjoying the tour so much.  So, I just ended up showing them all kind of other places in MO hall, including the room of some people none of us knew but who invited us to see their awesomely artsy room.  All-in-all, a great day of tours (and some people who now for sure want to live in Missouri Hall.  Booyah).

Not much else to say; I’ll finish up with a musical quote that I like and some dorm photos:

“Hundreds of years in the future,
It could be computers
Looking for life on Earth.”

-Coldplay, Twisted Logic

(PS: IT’S TOTALLY STORMING NOW!)

Read Full Post »

So, about those pictures…

Last post, I realise that I had made illusions to having photos of my new dorm room, but because of dead batteries and my forgetful nature, they didn’t quite make it into the post.  So, here are all of those photos:

Here are the majority of my things in the room.  Colourful, right?

One of the things I was really worried about was how to get both natural and artificial lighting.  Well, after some moving around of my desk and a five-headed lamp, problem solved.  If this is to be a tip for anyone moving into a dorm, definitely invest in good lighting.  I’d say no less than three lamps–one for your desk, one for by your bed, and one for general purposes.

What I really love about having a dorm twice the size of last year is that I can bring along my own furniture to spice things up.  If you’ve ever been in my basement, you may remember this hideous whitish-yellow coffee table that was by the couches.  Well, do you recognise it now?  TADA!  I painted it a deep mint green and added brown trees to the side that look wonderfully whimsical.  And I just added some throw pillows that I made (okay, and two that I bought), my ugly, patchwork blanket that I finally finished, and my stupid monster stuffed animal that I made last year.  His name is Cedric Stupory.  I made him a girl friend named Cho Chud-up, but she’s not cool enough to make it to uni.

Because of the extra room this year, I was actually able to see my wall, which meant more opportunities to decorate.  I bought a few new picture frames to compliment the paintings that I had brought up last year.  Since my bed is lofted, I get to use that metal frame for even more decorating.  Yeah!  I used some otherwise useless magnets to hang up random photos from Germany, Colorado, and home.

Another cool thing was to be able to hang up all of my necklaces and use them as some dècor.  The best ever hooks are 3M, and they make it super easy to hang everything from jewellery to towels to paintings to curtain ties.  The next best hook would be any over the door hook.  If your bed is lofted like mine, you can put the hooks over the rungs on the side of the bed in order to hang up purses, electrical cords, whatever.

The built-in bookshelf on the desk is a life-saver on many levels.  First, it eliminates the need for me to actually bring up something for all of my text books and resources.  Second, it has cork board.  CORK BOARD.  Back in early high school, I started collecting a lot more jewellery, which caused me to quickly run out of space.  But one day, while rearranging my cork board in my bedroom, I discovered that necklaces could be hung from colourful sewing needles or push pins.  What a marvellous day!  Ever since, I’ve used available cork board for my jewellery since I usually don’t post anything else on the boards aside from important tid bits and old pins.

Here’s a better view of the necklaces.

I also have an array of mason jars for food (everything from almonds to chocolate chips to home made mint tea!), FOSSIL tins from a Saint Charles store called Left Overs, and garage sale wooden jewellery holders for all kinds of pens and post its and whathaveyou.  Around this time of year, you’ll see Walmart carrying those shit organisers in every bright colour and type of plastic.  While they are usually functional, they automatically make your dorm, well, look like a dorm.  If you want to transform your dorm into your own room (or better yet, an apartment), you have to plan ahead and add more sophisticated elements.  Plus, I just like that the wooden furniture hides the sight of bright neon highlighters but still costs less than a dollar.

Most of the time, I shove my text books into my binders/folders for the class.  This helps keep me organised and also allows me to easily pick up everything I need for class.  Sure, there are stragglers that couldn’t find their way into a binder, but I have some neat marble horse-head bookends that my mum bought around the time that I was born.  They’re heavy enough to get the job done but still look pretty neat.

I really do love the food décor, though.  Antique mason or jam jars work great, but you can also buy jars for super cheap at Walmart.

Another really great way to decorate (that’s also useful) is to have plants in your room.  Unfortunately, I killed all of my plants from last year, so this year, I have a slew of new finds!

Oh, and I have a Skittles machine.  Be jealous.

What you can’t see in this photo is that I added curtains today.  They’re the same bright purple ones from last year, but it was an amazing difference putting them up.  It made the hole room look so much more like home.

And I know you’re just thrilled to see the inside of my wardrobe.  Yes; I know that I am Elle Woods.  But since I’ve practically turned this post into a dorm show-off for anyone interested in dorm décor, I thought I’d mention the use of drawers and hangers for scarves.  Oh, and this is my personal entrance to Narnia.  Aslan and I are best-friends.

Again, 3M Hooks are your best-friend.  I use them to hold up old bra hangers, and from there, the bra hangers then become SCARF HANGERS!  I’m one of those girls who collects massive quantities of scarves, so I had to find a good way to store them.

Drawers are also your friend.  But, ye be warned: measure first.  You don’t want to be coming home to find your drawers not fitting into your wardrobe.  Last year, these were showing right next to my desk, which wasn’t all that bad.  It just didn’t look that great since they are see-through.

Also, get a nice plastic caddy for your shower things.  And a soap container.  THEY ARE AMAZING.

Storage.  It happens.  And it doesn’t always look nice.  But whatever.  I brought along the fridge again and bought a cheap microwave from Walmart.  And it works cheaply, too, but it eventually gets the job done.  Target had some great storage cubes last year, and this year, the price dropped enough for me to get a door and more shelves for the inside of them.  Now they hold food.  Yeah!

MORE STORAGE!

Anyway, this has turned into one of those posts that was meant for my friends but has turned into something that people will find on Google and then look through before heading off to uni every August.  Oh well.  Here are some pictures from my dorm last year:

The first stages, before I had figured out how to make things pretty.  TRANSFORMATION:

Much better.  Getting the cords out of the way and removing random junk really helped.  And, just a little tip, store extra things in your car.  My room mate used to store some of her cooking supplies in her trunk to save on room because, as you can tell from the next photo, it was cramped.

We had the smallest dorm on campus that was shared by two people, but we managed to make it work.  It just felt a little bit like a cupboard.  But not in the good way–you know, like Harry Potter.

Speaking of Harry Potter, I make really terrible first introductions with people I don’t know who have to live with me.  Get ready 1 North, you’re living with Missi–the girl who says that hummingbirds and chicken nuggets are synonymous.

I’ll leave you now.

Read Full Post »

Again and Again and Again and Again

Well, it’s yet again August, which means I’m trucking back up to school for the next nine months in order to pack my sponge-like brain full of knowledge so that I can squeeze it all out during the winter and summer holidays.  No, that’s being mean to my intellect.  I remember what’s necessary and come back each year smarter than I was the year before.  But I fully accept that I will forget half of what I learn this upcoming semester.

My classes seem pretty basic; I’m still in that stage of school where I have to completely my liberal arts requirements before I can jump just into my major and minor.  So, Brit Lit, German, and statistics are mostly to round that out (aside from the fact that I need to take yet another stats and German class next semester that have this semester’s classes as prerequisites).  Otherwise, I’ve started my studio art minor by taking a drawing class (which I had this morning, and it went very well), and I’m continuing my psychology major with a social psychology course.  Which, let’s face it, I’m super excited for that class.  Yes.  It will be a lot of work–more work than any of my other psych classes because it’s lecture, reading, papers, and projects rather than just a combination of a few of those elements.  But we have show and tell in class tomorrow, so I’m pretty pumped.

Otherwise, move-in was fine, all aside from a hurt foot and constant indecision about where to put things.  Last year, the room was so small that there was really only one way to arrange things, so decisions were much simpler.  This year, my room is literally twice as large, so I had more options–leading to a full day of moving things back and forth and trying to figure out what I liked and didn’t like.  But after twelve hours of organising and decorating, things were finally looking pretty good.  Want a picture?  All right, here:

Apartment Therapy can eat it’s heart out; I think it looks pretty damn good.

But it feels odd, yet right, to be back.  Odd in the sense that I’m in a new room, starting all over, and I no longer recognise half of the people in the cafeteria.  Right in the sense that nearly everyone from last year is back.  We gathered for dinner last night and then in the lounge, and things fell right back into place–we played games, watched television, I was overly ridiculous and annoying, we all laughed.  Just as it was where we left off, just a few people gone who moved out or graduated and a few people new who have moved in or are freshmen.  I’m just waiting for everything to click and fell exactly the same as it did last year.  Give it another few days.  I’ll be there.

Nothing else is that big right now.  The cycle of water and tea starts again, music plays, and books get read.  That’s just about how it goes.

I’ll keep you updated.

Read Full Post »

Call it Musing

I’ve been thinking a lot about next year, lately.  It’s unanswered in the extreme, which I’ve been unwilling to face.  After all, I’m a planner and extremely intuitive, so it’s difficult to not be able to see into my future.  It’s also difficult to realise that I have little control over what is to happen.

This weekend, I’ll be interviewed in order to become a Student Advisor, and it has me in every sort of nerve.  Many people apply for the job.  Many, many, many.  But only about ten percent of the applicants are chosen for the job.  So, I’m hoping that I can give the best appearance possible in order for the committee to choose me as a future student advisor.

Should I not be chosen, there are many different routes that will be open and closed in my life.  There are many back up plans, one of which I really like and is my second choice, but I’m still very confused as to how I will do without being chosen as an SA.

With SA, it will be my campus job.  It’s just about twenty-four-seven, but I will manage.  Lots of leadership, planning, caring, etc.  I can do that.  I’ll also be given my own room, which will greatly improve my sleeping habits, and my room and board will be nearly covered.  That, alongside my existing scholarships, means that I wouldn’t have to worry any more about how to pay for next year.

But those aren’t the reasons I really want to become an SA.  I want to become one so that I can help build a community, be someone there for others when they need help, and so that I can be someone for others to look up to.  After all, I want to be a counsellor later on down the road, so this seems like a logical step towards that.  Plus, I enjoy helping other people.

It will be a lot of work, but I can do that.  I’m sure.

Should I not be chosen, I have several back up plans.  The first is to move in with my friend Katie and be room mates down the hall.  She has a double deluxe room, and we get along quite well, so that would work quite well.  Should she find a room mate before then, I’ll squat my room and hope for the best with a room mate next year.  That, or I’ll still squat in my room but buy out the whole thing.  That will cost a bit more, but I would be willing in order to bring some balance to my life and so that I wouldn’t have to worry about roomming with someone I disliked.  But, even with all of those options, I have no way to pay for it without more scholarships or a good job.  And I’ll be low on time for a job that’s not SA (AKA: driving to a job and such would be difficult for me).  The only thing I can think of would to be a tour guide for campus, but I’d need to see how much that would pay and if it would be enough.

– – –

Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking a lot about decorations should I end up getting my own room next year.  My theme would most likely be New Age since that has become the theme of my life, anyway.  There are some really neat lamp ideas that I have including hanging a light wash of fabric over the main light in order to have a glowing room.  Then, I’d supplement light with hanging lanterns which I’m going to figure out how to make with wire and fabric over the summer, and I also have three matching lamps in my room right now that I will be able to add.  I also plan on painting a few more paintings for my room, regardless of where I am next year.  I want to finish my seasons scene, and I thought of a neat idea for some abstract works this morning.  Also, I saw some neat wall hangings yesterday that I would like to buy regardless of my roomming in order to use as decoration on the wall or as a separation for a changing area.  But I’m still thinking about that.  Last, I’ve been thinking about bringing up my trunk next year to use as storage and seating.  But that depends a lot on room and the like.

– – –

You may be wondering why I’m not roomming in the same fashion as this year, but my room mate and her best-friend are roomming together next year in the room beside me.  I found it humorous how nervous they were about telling me; maybe they thought I would be very hurt.  But I had called this months before, and it came as no surprise.  Chances were, I knew that they were going to room together next year before they even knew it.  They’ll get along very well, and I’m of course, not upset about any of it.  After all, life moves, and these aren’t things that bother me.  It opens and closes doors.  I don’t mind.

– – –

Noah and I visited our friends at Mizzou yesterday, which went surprisingly well.  We didn’t do all that much, aside from go out to eat twice, sleep very little, watch some films, and later walk around town to poke into shops.  I ended up buying three new albums while at Slackers (Enya and two Loreena McKennitt).  They’re wonderful, and I’ve been listening to them since.

There’s not much else to say about that.  Just know that I’m doing well for now, though I’ll be starting some psychology reading rather soon (I have much of it).  And then I may hang out with Rebecca or watch some football with Abby.  Either one.  Doesn’t matter.  Hopefully you find yourself well.

Read Full Post »