3 Day Weekend!

Ok so usually in the summer I don't get too excited about weekends. Even with work during the week, it's still summer so you can basically do what you want. Plus I always work all weekend too. (On a side note, my work scheduled me for Friday night, Saturday morning, AND Saturday night. Ugh!)

Anyway, this whole summer class thing is completely altering my perceptions of summer (Read: summer classes suck). Weekends have become the highlight of my existence, even with working all the time. So I was especially thrilled for a three-day break over Memorial weekend.

Not so thrilling was the process of attempting to get some time off work so I could actually enjoy the weekend. I legitimately needed time off because I had a friend's wedding to go to and I road-tripped out to Sidney, Nebraska to meet all my boyfriend's relatives. Anyway, they gave me Friday and Sunday off, but scheduled me for a double shift on Saturday. I had to majorly suck up to get Saturday off and had to work Sunday instead. So we had to leave Sidney at 9 am Sunday morning to get back to Lincoln by 4 so I could work at 4:45...

Road-tripping!

I suppose that was better than the drive out there. We had to leave Lincoln at 7 am on Saturday.

But that all is besides the point. It was a wonderful three-day weekend involving a lot of wonderful people, a wedding, 12 hours in the car, a gigantic family reunion where I was known as "Colby's Girlfriend," grilling, and not very much sleep. We were going to attempt camping at some point in there but the weather was uncooperative, so we camped in my basement, sleeping bags and all =)

The name tag they made for me.
I literally was "Colby's Girlfriend."

And now it's back to the daily grind of class and work...oh well.

Summer Classes and Adventures in Public Transportation

In my last post I mentioned that I'm taking summer classes.

For those of you who don't know, summer classes are super-condensed classes that cover an entire semester in 3-5 weeks. Mine is a 3 week class, so that means I have class from 8:30-11:20 AM EVERY DAY until June 3rd. I also had to buy an $80 book for it.

Fortunately the class is Nutrition 100. I thought this would have something to do with nutrition. It doesn't. It's basically like college P.E. We have lecture for an hour and then we go to the rec and work out. Every day. Best class ever? It is a little disheartening that I'm paying for credit hours to go work out every morning (along with my student fees that cover my rec membership).

I just realized I complain about paying for college a lot. It's a valid complaint.

So anyway, since I'm living at home this summer, class every day is fairly inconvenient. It's about a 20 minute drive to campus one way. So I'd be spending about 40 min in the car everyday and going through a crap ton of gas. Plus I'd have to buy a parking permit.

I've decided I'm not going to drive to class this summer.

That may have a lot to do with the fact that my car is completely empty and I'm avoiding buying gas as long as possible. It's more than just saving money though. It's being green and while one less car on the streets isn't going to make a huge difference, every little bit helps. (And remember Gas Boycotting (Or "An Easy Way to Change the World")? Exactly).

Day 1 of summer class I biked 8 miles each way to get to class. It worked well. Lincoln's got a pretty decent bike trail system that can get you pretty much anywhere in the city. Not so well was that my knee kind of kills from riding a bike that wasn't mine and a little small. I need to fix mine and haven't had a chance. Biking is great because, well I love biking, but it's super nice out and exercise and all that.

Day 2 was the bus. Knee=no biking today (plus I'm going to P.E. class!) This is where things get interesting. UNL students get a free bus pass that lasts for a year, so if you can navigate the confusing mess of bus routes and schedules, it works fairly well. Unfortunately, Lincoln's public transportation system is not as convenient as it's bike trail network, but it's not bad. I may have done a lot of unnecessary walking because I wasn't sure exactly where to get on or off the bus, but I made it to and from class. I'm lucky to live a couple blocks from a bus stop that goes downtown though. And it's about a 30-40 minute ride, which seems like a lot, but I worked on my homework. Nerd, I know.

It was slightly concerning because the bus driver was a very aggressive driver. He was going ridiculously fast (for a bus) and honked a lot. He even opened the bus door to cuss out a lady in her car. I made it home in 25 minutes though =)

Back to the grindstone...

I actually think I'm going to enjoy my classes this semester.

All of them.

That's a first. I usually have a couple good ones and a couple terrible ones, but if the first day means anything, I think they are are going to go well. I haven't had my Monday-only class yet, since this Monday was a snow day (YAY!!) and next Monday is MLK Day (YAY!!!), so I don't know about that one, but so far all my teachers seem great and all my classes seem interesting.

Hopefully it stays that way, because I can not get up for 8 AM class if it's not going to be a good one.

Oh yeah, that's the crappy part of my schedule. I have to be on a bus by 7:30 three days a week or leave to go to an elementary school by 8 am the other two days. I'm going to have to become a morning person. I also get done at 4:45 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and have a night class on Mondays.

This is why I need my classes to be amazing.

But these first couple days of class were really encouraging because for once, I actually felt like I belonged there. I'm so excited for the rest of the semester. All of my classes are Child Development/Family Studies/Education something, so I really feel like I'm finally in the right major. I feel like I'm on the right track and taking my life in the right direction.

And it only took me a year and a half of college to figure that out!

Resolutions.

Yes, I realize it's January 11 so I'm a little late jumping on the New Year's resolution bandwagon, but I'm finally getting around to making them and I figure by putting them on here it'll actually make me somewhat accountable so I actually try to stick with them.

That's the idea anyway.

I've never actually made a New Year's resolution, and this year someone told me that I had to make three. I can't remember what the categories were supposed to be, so here's three random ones that I think are good.

Resolution #1: Be healthier. I know it's vague and cliche, but it's a good goal. I'm running a half-marathon in May and hopefully going on another bike trip this summer, so I really need to keep my body up for it. This includes getting (and staying) in shape and eating better. I'm already a runner, but I need to step it up so I can run 13 miles without dying.

Coconut milk is healthy, right?

Resolution #2: Make this semester a damn good one. Another vague one, but I'm still a little bitter that I didn't get to go to France, so I'm going to milk Lincoln for all it's worth. I know it's not going to measure up to a study-abroad experience, but I'm at least going to have a good time.

Resolution #3: Be more spiritual. I don't know exactly what that means, but I'm going to try to figure it out. I have pretty strong beliefs, but I've never considered myself a spiritual person so I'd like to become more so. I'm not really sure how to go about doing this, but it's definitely something to work towards. Suggestions are welcome.

Resolutions start tomorrow (maybe I should have made one to procrastinate less...?), but no resolutions start tomorrow with yoga class. I figure yoga is a perfect way to be healthier, have fun, and I'm sure it can be a spiritual experience. It's not the only thing I'm going to do for my resolutions, but I figure it's a good start.

The Rec has free classes all this week and they have one called Yoga for Runners. Yoga 101 is tomorrow, so I'm going to go to that and hopefully learn a little about it (I don't really know how to do yoga...) and ideally I'll be ready for Yoga for Runners on Thursday. We'll see how it goes.

Wish me luck!

2nd Semester.

So I've decided that UNL has the worst system for registering for classes.

They do priority registration by the number of credit hours you have, so freshman are pretty much screwed from the start. Then, on they day you finally can register, they do it by the last number in your social security number, and they block you out of the website until the hour when you're allowed to register.

I was supposed to go at noon, and I tried to get on at 11:59 and it wouldn't let me. Ugh.

Needless to say, pretty much everything was full, although I did get all my classes I wanted except one. I am taking 18 credit hours and Honors English though, so something needs to change. I will probably drop something. 18 is kind of a lot, and Honors English will probably suck.

And the really crappy thing is that after this semester, I will have enough credit hours to have sophomore status, so you would think that would mean I could register as a sophomore.

Nope.

Ugh.

Tip of the Day: Stay hydrated. People are gettin sick, drink lots of water kids.