studying habits

for a long time now i've known i'm weird. can't be helped. :] but i have these phases that i go through when i study for tests:

overwhemled/clueless ... this is when i have began to look at my notes and I realize I should have started studying long before the current point in time. at this point I am still slightly hopeful that I'll be able to understand the material in time for the exam.

frustrated ... at this point I am ready to throw the book I am reading out the window - frequently occurs with accounting. this state of mind develops after I have spent a lot of time reading, studying, memorizing terms and I still don't understand anything. at times, like in accounting, i can't get past this step- either lack of motivation, desire, or time, which is not good for the grades.

fun ... this is when homework and studying finally becomes enjoyable!! yay! like w/ business stats - after I spend some time reviewing and working problems, and I understand it, I can sit and do it for hours.

bored ... i also seldom get to this stage where the material bores me to death. this stage sometimes surfaces with the material in some mass comm classes.

hold on for just one more week

weekends. i look forward to them from the moment i get up monday morning…sometimes from the moment i go to bed sunday night. i was really looking forward to this weekend after a stressful week of class. but good ol' duty kept me stuck in the dorms. I got a fair amount accomplished- not as much as I hoped, but then again I never do. I thought I would be able to catch up on sleep…hello- I was on duty who was I kidding?

I really thought this 'alone time' would be good for me. A lot of friends were gone/went home, which was kind of nice. I didn’t have any plans except work for 5 hrs on Saturday, and I thought I would be able to spend some quality time w/Jesus and my textbooks. Ahhhh but i was not alone. my thoughts entertained me for most of my long afternoons. And nights. ugh this was just a weird weekend. My several cans of mt. dew probably did not help. It was weird in many ways … Melissa stopped by the dorms to hang out- which was fun, but weird to see her in the dorm. We [melissa, laura and I] watched RENT last night. Kinda glad I didn’t stay up just to watch it. I like the overall theme of the movie, but it’s basically 2.25 hrs of homosexuals infected w/ AIDS singing about life, love, and crack. Got up @ 530am to tell the boys on Norton to shut up. Checked back on em 5 mins later and they were surprisingly quiet. Weird.

All in all I think it was weird because it’s kind of been an emotional roller coaster the past few days. Asking my ‘rents for $$ is never easy for me [esp since it was registration for project], but they were surprisingly ok with it. Pretty sweet. Studying accounting bums me out because I don’t understand it. It’s like calc. I totally understand everything about some sections. And others, no matter how much I read and re-read and do homework problems on it, I just don’t get it. I’m just mad at myself that I can’t do better. Actually I’m mad that I don’t care enough to do better. No, I’m mad that I think I’ll just be able to understand it with not a lot of effort. There we go. That’s why I’m mad. and now i realized I'm really not accomplishing anything in this post, and i could be if i wasn't writing it. peace out.

Olympic Surprise

"I love Jesus. [Being a Christian] is more joyful than all this snowboarding stuff." -Kelly Clark, Olympic Snowboarer

pretty sweet.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/olympics/2006/writers/02/13/clark.pipe/

Summer 06: Project

Almost forgot! I received an e-mail today from the Medora Summer Project women staff leader person that I have been accepted! I am soooo excited. Not sure where I'm staying, where I'm working, how much it costs, but I know it will be an amazing summer. 10 weeks in the Badlands of North Dakota ... a bunch of college students from the Upper Midwest ... yay!

also cool that some of my very good friends will be having a similar but yet uniquely awesome experience as I will this summer:
Joy will be going to North Myrtle Beach for about 10 weeks
Alyssa will spend 6 weeks in New Orleans helping with Katrina Clean-up
Julie will spend a month in New York w/art students

[disclaimer: if you have no idea what i'm talking about...Campus Crusade for Christ offers Summer Missions Projects every year. you spend a chunk of your summer in one of several beautiful locations across the US, building relationships with those you work with and holding outreaches and socials on weekends and building relationships with other college students who want to grow in their faith.]

don't wanna know

my very good friend alyssa had a very weird dream about me last night involving a guy friend and a pregnant me ... yes, very weird. I tend to analyze things (WAY too much) but this is one i do not want to think about! crazy.

family

I went home last weekend. Good times- I had fun. I love my family. I absolutely hate the transition between going home and coming back here. For some reason, it's hard. You'd think with the two and a half hour drive I would be able to clear my head. My problem could be that I'm scared that I am two people- that I'm different when I'm at home. I feel like I always have to watch what I do, watch what I say. A lot of people might think that I hate going home because I don't like my family - it's not that. I hate going home because I don't like who I am when I'm at home. Sometimes I get so proud because I see others trying to compete with me and, compared to them, I "have everything figured out." Pride is a big thing when I am with my family. I am proud of them, and I love being with them, but sometimes I can't help feeling proud that I have a more purposeful life and they don't. Shouldn't that make me want to share my life with them? I try to, and I want to, but sometimes I just don't want to have to explain everything to them. I want them just to know how I feel. I want them to understand. I want to be able to say things like "Well, I'll pray for you because you're struggling with that," and have them thank me, not look at me like I'm nuts. Ahhh self-centeredness is evil. Here I am complaining and life could be much worse. I don't like the fact that I need a constant reminder to be not so dramatic, that God has blessed my life so much with everything he's given me. But I see reminders every day, and, in the words of the amazing bethany dillon, "all that I can do is hold on to you, and let you bring me through- it's all that I can do."

Etiquette is on the ropes - Opinion

Etiquette is on the ropes - Opinion

review

sorry, alyssa and others, for not updating you on my life over this past week. it's basically been the longest week of my life, after being sick the whole time and spending more time in the bathroom on thursday and friday than I did in class. And that's about it. Now I am feeling sooo much better and I'm so glad! :]

go for it

i was in the bathroom on 1st floor [loren was cleaning ours] and I was reading the little postings in my stall and one of them was the Top 11 Risks you must take. Number 8 on that list was... "record the song, produce the film, write the novel - even if you don't think any one else will like it." :D pretty cool.

February 6th, 2006

A daughter is a precious gift, a blessing from above.
She's laughter, warmth and special charm, she's thoughtfulness and love.
God blesses her with special joy that some from deep inside,
and as she shares it with the world, she fills your heart with pride.
With every year that passes, she's dearer than before.
Through every stage- through every age, you love her even more!

-bday card from my parents :]

Another day, another year older. Feels good to be twenty. I am so thankful for my amazing friends ... God has blessed me so much with bringing you girls into my life!! Seriously, I could write a book on how wonderful ya'll are. :]

pre-bday fun

Well Friday didn't start out to be a great day, but by the end of it I was pretty happy. Class was boring, I sort of dressed up and got a few complements so that was nice [thanks girls!] We headed to sioux falls at 2pm and did a little shopping, and then we went to Gigglebee's for supper. It's like a Chuck e Cheese's, only waay more old-school. There is this wolf robot thing that rides around on a tricycle delivering the food to the tables [a guy controls it and talks for it]. When it brought us our pizza, it said "I hear someone has a birthday!! Is amy at the table??" I pretty much almost died of embarassment. THEN he said "How old are you, amy?" When I said 20, he replied "Holy Cow." The funniest part was he didn't even say it with much emotion, just shock: "holy cow." I think he didn't expect that! Then everyone there [all family's with really little kids] sang happy bday to me. ahh embarrasing. We played laser tag which was fun, and some arcade games. The guys pooled together all their tickets they had won from the games and bought me a deck of cards that are round like coasters. Pretty sweet gift!! Then we went to Falls Park for a bit, which was sweet. I had never been there. Def. a romantic spot for couples! Then we went to the [other] River [worship event thing every friday night]. After THAT we went to IHOP, and then we played cranium after that at mike's apt. Sad to say, the honors kids didn't do too well. ;) I can't believe we all spent like 12 hrs together! On the walk back to the dorm it felt like the whole weekend had gone by .... but it hadn't. I was even sad to leave. Honestly, I thought maybe after 12 hrs I would be a little crabby from hanging out with the same 10-ish people but I didn't. I have such great friends!! :]

20

I just saw a hilarious commercial for the Siouxland Federal Credit Union. It had this cute little girl talking about growing up.... "An then I'll get married, pick a boy ... and then I'll have glasses ... and a job ... and then when I am 20 I'll be REALLY OLD."

Monday, I'll be 20. I feel slightly old after that commercial. ;)