I love that this is becoming the main source of communciation between me & my best friends.

Chrissa, this format is too dark. PLEASE, dude. we are rays of sunshine to the blogging world. i do, however, THOROUGHLY dig the floral (dare i say victorian?) pattern in the back though. keep tweakin', baby boiiii!

and thank you for being a genius.

Teachers cancel class on the most inconvienent days!!

my biology of aging professor canceled class, and i stayed in bowling green to take the quiz that she was going to pass out, and now i'm in bowling green with no quiz. doesn't that stuff just really fire you up?? cancel with a little bit of notice!! or cancel when it's freezing and i wasn't planning on walking over to campus anyways!!!

i'm very happy otherwise, i had such a good night yesterday at crosstrainging, cru, and then to trotters with some great people!! sometimes i feel so lucky to have such good friends, that i almost feel bad not knowing if everyone has felt that happy before! that's all for now, i need to pack and get over to akron :-)

it looks beautiful already!

chris, everything looks beautiful already. i think that i'm so "three-thousand and eight" because i can use: microsoft word, twitter, and facebook...please do not even fake joke that the website looked good before (that was a default!) thank you for spending a little free time on it!! :-)

so i have always thought that i was special: before i thought i had a certain magnetic field around me because it seems that street lights perpetually flick off every time i'm near them. or this one time, for a few months straight, (maybe i was sixteen or so?) i had extremely vivid dreams and i didn't even feel like i was sleeping. FOR MONTHS!

but my recent blog talking about how beautiful j. d. salinger was really struck a chord of E.S.P....he died of natural causes today! i cried at work and no one understood why. it wasn't because i think he's the best author or anything like that, but when men have a way with words it truly amazes me. i fell in love with a fictional character--zooey glass--not only because of his description, but because of the character he was created to be.

on a lighter note, i'm road trippin' to akron tomorrow! erika (my sugar momma) said we can go get a nice dinner and wear heels and visit together. she also lives in a house with a washer/dryer so i'll be doing some laundry. i'm only planning on going friday-saturday, but sometimes a girl just needs a breather!

molly: i liked your blog about looking at the flowers around your feet. my natural impacts class talks about ways to connect people to the environment, by telling stories of your own experiences. maybe one day when i'm a park ranger i will tell people to look at their feet more often.

bye for now!

Regarding the design

Hello everybody,

I am currently spicing up our design, even though Katelyn did a fantastic job with the last one, I am going for a more 'custom' approach.  Please don't mind the mess for the next few days as I sort things out.

a hell of a morning

Hello friends!

I am on here, just to vent about this faannntastic morning I had (can't you just feel the sarcasm oozing from this Post already!?).  Well..it actually started last night after the Cavs game, I went to start my car...it cranked over really slow and finally started...PHEWWWW that was close.  Then when I got home, I was going to take the battery out and charge it over night, well I opened the hood and my battery was smoking and hissing....AWESSSOMMEEE!  I said "eff it" and left it in there.  This morning I woke up and my right ear was draining (I was at Kalahari last weekend so I guess that's why), then I have a very unfortunate sty on my left eye, and I had to go to the dentist for more effin dental work.  The car actually started...gotta love the Honda's.  I wasn't at the dentist for long so I went home and decided to hang out with my favorite person on the planet for a little while longer (I had a half day at work already, so i figured why not), Jes.  Her ability to make me laugh never fails, so after all that I went through this morning...it actually turned out to be a pretty good morning because of my goofy ass girlfriend :). 

Be sure to follow me on twitter if you aren't already http://www.twitter.com/cschneider

...and that's the way the cookie crumbles!

I will tell you when I know.

Turns out, this semester my mind is TOO liberated because I forget to do things like go to work, go to scheduled lunch meetings, check what rooms my classes are in, and call people I said I would call to do planning. Whoops.

I'm currently drafting up bi-weekly reflections for meetings with my fellow learning community leaders, and I decided to start with what I know best-- quotations. So I spent an hour at work yesterday looking at different ideas about community, which led me to a quote that I put as my current status, which led me to look up the life of that particular person, which led me to a person for whom an award that person #1 received was named for, which led me to this:

"In the hopes of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet."

So there you have it. Sometimes (read: all the time), we are so busy striving for ambition and progress and titles and accomplishment that we forget to look where we are standing and see the beautiful joys that exist without ever having to do anything that shakes the universe. And now I say this: "success" is something that we all have the ability to define for ourselves-- and consequently, then, for no one else. Is it important to invest in and hope for the betterment, growth and fulfillment of those around us in the world? Absolutely. Is it up to our standards that they must measure? Absolutely NOT.

The closer I get to graduation, the less I care about the answer to the question, "What will you be doing?" I know I will be very happy and very passionate, no matter where I find myself. And for me, that's more of a sense of success than any paycheck or door plaque could generate.

Could it be!?

guess what!?  I am finally on here!  I found out, thanks to Katelyn giving me her login information that I was never even added to the "authors" list of this blog, so that's why I was unable to log on and blog!  Well, I will be heading to the Cavs game tonight with Media Credentials, so I might have to update the blog when I am there on my iPod touch.  I look forward to blogging a few more times in the future ;)

Jerome David Salinger has not published since 1965

I just left Greek Awards 2009, even though it's 2010. I think i was the only person in that entire room that thought that was weird. but my sorority won a couple of awards about scholarship and my friend - steph taylor - won an individual award (which i think also landed her a scholarship!) but she is very admirable. her award was actually more meaningful than the overall sorority award for me! it was amazing the amount of girls wearing pencil skirts there. like i bet 80% of girls there had a pencil skirt on--i had no idea these were so trendy. they might not know what year it is, but they sure know how to get ready for an awards banquet.

Shawn is coming over later to watch a movie. I bet we will argue about a movie for about 5 minutes or so, and then he'll say "i don't really carrrrrrrrrrre katelyn, you just pick whatever you want that isn't a chick flick" and i'll say "i don't like chick flicks" and then he'll list every chick flick that i've said was sort of cute that he can remember. i honestly don't care what movie we watch because that watch instantly option on netflix is the coolest invention in the entire world. if someone is unhappy with their life i would recommend they get netflix. it makes mail cooler, you can watch lots of things instantly (with no commercials if it's t.v.!), and i'm sure there are lots of other cool reasons. do you have netflix? i sound like a bad spokesperson.

"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."

-Claude Monet

(if you are reading this message, chances are... i miss you even if we're never met!)

I'm down with Ecru/Cream (Yeah, You Know Me)

To translate my parody title, I'm ok with the new color scheme.
I just fixed the space bar on this public computer so I could blog. BOOM.

It's been a great past few days. I've discovered the fitness (read: yoga) programs on OnDemand, and since I pay my roomie $30 a month for internet I can't use (stone-age computer, remember?) and cable I typically only use when he suckers me into watching hours upon hours of trash TV ("uhmmm, HALLOOO! Ah yoo DUMB?!"-- Jersey Shore) I decided that I should use said yoga programs every night. It's been an awesome way to end my day!

I also currently have 4 letters sitting on my desk, waiting to be replied to (yayyy!) and I officially submitted my Pass/No Pass form for one of my classes, making my 12-credit hour schedule that much more easy. AAAAND I got 2 packages in the mail in 4 days. Contents: from my mother, my brown flat "snow" boots (not really waterproof) & You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown!. From Matt Forrest, 3 MU shot glasses, a card with a paddleball on it (remember those things?!), a lovely MU shirt that I can't wait to wear, and.....MY BLACK FLIP FLOPS! Which had been eaten by TKD's garage couch in November. Never thought I'd see those puppies again.

On another note, the night before I left Elyria, I went to 184 Buh-race to see Jes, Chris, Erin, and Parkerbabyboi and we watched Modern Family & Lawn & Order: SVU. This is only relevant for two reasons: 1) we watched Modern Family in my Comparative Family Policy Class (I have the magical ability to select classes that show TVepisodes to illustrate textbook points), and 2) Katelyn's hot British friend down there (Sayied from Lost) was the most awesome investigator ever in the SVU episode...and I, similarly, fell hard for him.

This is why we get along.
I am going to go read 80 pages on "the art of theological reflection" for class. Bye-bye!

I DID IT.

I made the changes, i have no idea why, change them if you'd like....if you dare.

"Horizon meets earth like an unforseen kiss"

This past weekend was interesting, just for the sheer fact that today is January 25, 2010. This date has not made a momentous mark in my short history, but it has been a full month since Christmas. It feels like it has AT MOST been 2 weeks. I can't believe we're back in the swing of school things-- the semester is well underway, my little brother's 19th birthday is close, I have a quiz today. People (my sorority sisters especially) love to say "enjoy these four years because they totally will go soooo fast, like you have no idea." It's just an interesting idea, that time really does seem to be moving so quickly (for some odd reason) right now.

This by no means was meant to be a philosophical blog, but I was talking to Shawn last night he mentioned how different our friends seemed. It wasn't anything either of us could put our fingers on, but I was glad that it wasn't just me that was different. We really are all changing, and time really is passing, and yes--insert laugh here. You may be thinking "it took this girl 4 years at a public university for her to figure out that time passes?" and i suppose that's justified, but today I realize that time is moving and I'm not really that scared in this mood on this Monday.

On another note, I caught up on LOST! Maybe that's where this space-time-continuum thought-process came from (since they are back in 1977) but it was such a cliff hanger!! I could not imagine being someone that had to wait week to week to know what happened next!! But i am very excited to see what happens to everyone!! i have so many favorite characters...everyone is so different and crazy. This man is my favorite, for very obvious reasons. (his name is pronounced SAY-I-EEEE'D, and they made him an Iraqi, but he is actually from Great Britain! So his accent is fake, masking a different accent!)

Sayied, and me (on a good day, laughing at his hilarious jokes)

This blog looking back looks like i tried to be profound. i am watching a movie, listening to music, AND i have my homework in front of me....so perhaps i should focus on one thing at a time before i start rambling.

"Long Day" by Matchbox 20

it would be cool to keep titling drinks starbucks drinks that you can order (which i tried to do for like, my first 5 posts) but it turns out that that is not original, but actually lame seeing how i got yelled at by the district manager today. i knew by making his drink i was balancing on a thin line because it could really only go one of two ways:

a) he was very impressed with the quality service he received by a clean, welcoming barista and his drink was really good -or-

b) he would realize i hadn't showered in 3 days, i had worked 7 hours at this point, and he realized i wasn't going to kiss his ass like everyone else there but rather, hand him a warm-and-well-balanced drink.

it went a lot of option "B," but also i was corrected because i wasted milk when i steamed his drink. he told me i was "responsible for wasting about 8 gallons of milk a week by the way i was working, and 8 x $2.50 every 7 days really adds up." i don't think this man realized that i am very environmentally conscious and i am saving milk for reasons other than THE MAN. and when you charge $4 for the drink you're consuming, luckily the mark up is enough you're still making a significant profit.

on another note, SHAWN BLOGGED. this is obvious because i am posting right above him, but his blog really provided the hope (i'm going to go out on a limb here and include you, Molly) we needed to carry on the dontgochasin' site. not that there is really any hope we need---IS THERE ANYONE THERE? i'm blogging to cyberspace about the man, and this website is run by the man. AAHHHHHH!

things to listen to:

you really got a hold on me -She & Him

a lack of color -Death cab

just a boy -Angus and Julia Stone

things to read:

'I'm not afraid to compete. It's just the opposite. Don't you see that? I'm afraid I will compete--that's what scares me... I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. I'm sick of myself and everybody else that wants to make some kind of a splash.' She paused, and suddenly picked up her glass of milk and brought it to her lips.

-Franny & Zooey

Because it's Sunday night before MLK day?

Well it is in fact Sunday night at 8:48pm (assuming you cannot read the time and date links) and I've stumbled across the blog...I am sorry to say this is my first post since 2009 (but no time for apologies right?). I've successfully completed my first week of Teaching Methods. Not so bad yet, though I am overly nervous for what the future weeks hold. I met my class on Friday: I will be teaching a 5th grade class in a city called Fostoria.

Fun facts on city of Fostoria:

1. 5 State Highways and 1 U.S. Highway run through it

2. Named after Charles Foster, the 35th Governor of Ohio

3. Falls into 3 different counties

4. At one point in time housed the largest industrial producer of glass

5. Ranks #3 in medium cities with the most mobile homes by percentage

Beyond school, I had an interesting experience yesterday. As I parked my car in front of my house, I noticed about 7 old men and one old lady taking pictures of each other on my front porch. After multiple closer looks, I realized I knew none of them. As I approached my house, one of these old fellas asked me "Hello there, are you a 317-er?" At first I was unsure of this phrase, but I soon realized that these old men once upon a time lived in the same house I currently reside in, 1973 to be specific. As I welcomed them inside, I heard outrageous stories from their years in college just 37 years ago (that's 13,505 days). We came to find out there once was a 2 story back porch on our house and someone actually lived in our unliveable basement! They then took a group picture going down our staircase.

All in all, this rare encounter with our roomies-from-the-past got me thinking of two things:

1. How different "college" has changed over the years

2. How much "college" hasn't changed a bit

Even more so, it amazed me to see these 6 friends, who originally came from all different backgrounds, reunite in their 60s to remember the fun times they once had. I only have a few months of "college" left. I've decided now is better time than any to make more of those memories!

Eclectic Substance.

Heading back to Chi tomorrow with 2 passengers + doe-cat. Don't know if we'll all fit with luggage...fingers crossed. I'll bring my keys this time, I SWEAR! (Didn't hear about the NYE key fiasco? The whole holiday celebration was quite the saga...)

I spent the majority of today doing 2 things: looking up information about dreadlocks & making new things out of old tee shirts (reusable bag #3, check! brand new tie-dye bikini, check!). All in all, a pretty unproductive but really awesome last day.

I have very mixed feelings about heading back to the city tomorrow. I just don't have a desire to be there, now that I'm thinking of all the awesome places I want to go post-grad, and I hate feeling like I'm not really "present" wherever I am, especially because I always randomly dole out advice about being present to the moment to one of DGCW's lovely followers (holla, C-ROD!). But I know I have great things coming this semester-- a new roomie (ED!!!!!!), a ridiculously light workload, more time in the FYE office, more fun side projects, lots of loyolacafun, my EVOKEes, and my still-favorite thing ever: penpal mania. Last semester set the bar pretty high in terms of my happiness, balance, support network, and room for creative expression in all areas; I only hope I can keep such positive energy flowing.

I guess I'm done, because nothing really feels like it needs to be broadcasted on the interwebs. Let me at least end with something good, since this post was very weak compared to past performances...My close friend Emily used these words to describe writing a cover letter for a position dealing with outdoor education at Loyola, and I sincerely hope that everyone feels this way about what pursuits they fall into throughout their lives: "This should not be this difficult to write, but how do you write about something that is so much a part of you that it almost makes you cry, but laugh & your body tingle at the same time?"

Happy MLK weekend, my loves!

i have cabin fever

things that made me happy:
1. my environmental science class is going to be so cool! i can tell already, it was our last day in the classroom today!
2. my biology of aging professor knew my name and i have never met her? but she guessed right? and i smiled way too big in front of my class after that?
3. dinner date with good friends. but they are making me exercise first before i can eat. which is suppose is positive, but a long ride on the ellipitcal doesn't sound like a walk in the park if you know what i mean.
4. my roommate (that always cleans) cleaned the whole house (because it terribly needed it) on a day when i wasn't willing to serve others. which made me more willing to serve my friends! so the house got cleaned and my heart lightened up a little!

things that are making my boots heavy:
1. i have cabin fever and it's only janurary