Indefinite Hiatus

This is a record of my daily (well, generally) life in college. I study Advertising and sociology at Texas Tech University. Hoping for minors in Russian Language and Forensic Science. I really like photography. So yeah, this is pretty much my life.

[edgeofmyporch]

I know it's been a while since I've posted here, sorry about that. I'm not sure how much I'll be using this blog in the future, either. However, I'm actively using collegeavisual.tumblr.com for the pictures I take, and tomorrow I leave for a semester in St. Petersburg, Russia! If anyone is interested, I am using mrsmithgoestorussia.tumblr.com to keep track of all my adventures! I promise that one will be updated at least weekly (if not I won't get credit for my honors stuff)! It will definitely have weekly summaries and probably pictures. In case I don't put many pictures there, you can always check collegeavisual.tumblr.com as it will have every picture I take! Anyway, thanks for following me!

[edgeofmyporch]

Summer: Day Seven

Woke up way too early and finished packing, then went to my dad's school to print some stuff off

From there we went to Jack-in-the-Box for breakfast and then next door to wait for the shuttle to DFW airport

There we checked in and had to pay more for my bag because it was 68 pounds and not 40...oh well

Our flight got delayed 30 minutes so we didn't get on till 2...and then we were stuck on the runway for almost another two hours while it rained and stuff

At least we sat next to a girl who was pretty cool; she is a psychology major focusing in criminal justice from Delaware who goes to school at A&M Commerce

Eventually we took off

I slept pretty much the whole plane ride

After we landed, we grabbed our bag and hopped on the shuttle to enterprise where we got a gunmetal gray Ford Fusion that is really pretty and wonderful

Headed to the hotel...which is apparently in a super sketch neighborhood...

The keys didn't work after like five tries of going back and forth to the counter, so we got a new room which is a little better

We threw the suitcase into the room and left for dinner

Ended up at Ruby Tuesday's where I got French Quarter Gumbo which was actually really awesome

Back at the hotel we watched some documentary thing about female basketball players and then went to sleep at a moderately reasonable time

[edgeofmyporch]

Summer: Day Six

Ended up waking up at four...not at eleven so I missed hanging out with everyone I thought I was going to hang out with

Picked Taryn up from school

Met Avery to hang out at Braum's for a little bit. They have SEVEN new flavors of chocolate ice cream! They're all wonderful.

Took Avery back to my house to give her a few TV shows and movies which didn't transfer fast enough so I'll have to return it to her later...

My family left to get food at Jack-in-the-Box then go to Cinemark Legacy 

We met the Doughertys and Sherrills there to see The Ice Man

It was pretty good, more so because I got to make fun of Megan (she plays Betsy in the movie) the whole time

After the movie we took a whole bunch of pictures and headed home

I packed and watched more of Malcolm in the Middle 

Eventually I went to bed...I'm really bad at doing that

[edgeofmyporch]

Summer: Day Five

Went to church...late...sat through the second class, but spent the third in the library talking to my mom because I didn't want to go to class and she was stuck there

At home I had Mama Rita's chips and salsa  before the home teachers came over

I really dislike one of them because he's stupid and his opinions are dumb and he doesn't shut up and I couldn't let him be right so I just argued with him for a while

Eventually he left and I ranted about it for an hour

He should not come back

When they left, my dad started grilling burgers, which were awesome

After burgers, I sat on the couch, then got up to take Taryn to some church fireside thing in Plano

While she was there, I drove over to a park and played Pokemon 

Kendall and Grant came to say hi to me after the fireside which was cool because I haven't seen them in a while

Then I drove home and nothing else happened because I'm boring

[edgeofmyporch]

Summer: Day Four

Ended up sleeping till three...Taryn woke me up because she wanted to hang out with me before she and her friends left

They made me watch The Fourth Kind, which is not an ok movie and now I don't want to leave my room ever again

Then they all left...and I was alone...and that was not ok at all

My parents came home a little later and took me out to dinner at Pie Five

Then we went to Willowbend and wandered around for a while

When we got home, I left to meet Megan and Connie at Kid's Corral where we sat on the swings for a second, then got bored and went to Marble Slab for ice cream: sweet cream and chocolate swiss with a kit-kat mix-in

We sat outside for a few hours until a bunch of people came and decided that they needed to meet up and go insane in the parking lot which attracted the attention of not one, but FOUR cops who came over to break it up

They kicked me, Megan, and Connie off the premises, along with the other people who were actually being obnoxious and annoying

It was really stupid because they blocked us in so we just had to sit there and wait for them to move so that we could

It's not like we were doing anything wrong at all and had those idiots not been there, no one would have even noticed we were there...why did they even need four cops? NOTHING WAS GOING ON AT ALLLLL. Whatever.

Megan dropped me off back at my house where I proceeded to do practically nothing but managed to stay up until seven...

[edgeofmyporch]

Summer: Day Three

I woke up about nine when Graham and Brolin scream attacked me on the couch. Immediately, Graham made me play Mario Kart. Of course, I didn't have in my contacts and I was only semi-conscious, but I still managed to get sixth place. After that, I told Graham I was done and went back to sleep till eleven when Becky got back. They all left and I showered. My dad, Lisa, and I packed up his truck and my car, then headed out. Dad bought me gas which was really great. It was even the slightly better quality kind because that station had had an excess and it was the same price as the regular, woo! Got Chick-fil-A then met my dad at Taco Villa.

Aaaaand that started the really long drive back to Dallas. When we got to Fort Worth, my dad got pulled over, but he didn't get a ticket, thankfully. I don't know why he got pulled over though, he was definitely not the fastest moving car in the vicinity. Oh well. Hit traffic (which I forgot was a thing because I've been in Lubbock for so long) that sucked for probably ten miles, then cleared up around Cooper Street in Arlington. When we finally made it back home, I had to wait in the Office Depot parking lot for my dad to catch up so I could get Lisa's suitcase out of his truck. After that I dropped Lisa at her house and talked to her mom for a bit.

When I finally got home, my parents helped me unload everything before taking me dinner at Cafe Brazil. It was really great because Taryn wasn't there so we didn't have anyone argue against it! I really enjoy food that I don't have to pay for.

I picked Taryn up from her theatre banquet after dinner. My parents were watching the series finale to The Office when I got back. Connie told me that I needed to watch it, so I did. OH MY GOSH NOT OK. IT WAS PERFECT AND THEN I WAS REALLY SAD AND IT WAS REALLY UPSETTING AND PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL AND JUSTICAN'TEVENBECAUSEOHMYGOSH. Wow. It was really really wonderful and it nearly made me cry, which is really hard because I don't have a soul or a heart or anything. Yes. Good job. I even watched the "making of" show after it. Geez. This show.

Everyone went to bed when it ended, but I stayed up (till nearly seven in the morning) to unpack, which actually means that I set up all of my electronics, watched Malcolm in the Middle, made my bed, and all around did nothing at all.

[edgeofmyporch]

Summer: Day Two

Graham and Brolin attacked me at eight in the morning and started playing Mario Kart...they left for school an hour later

I woke up again at five

Dropped off my application for an international student ID at the ICC

Found Dani on campus and said by to her for an hour

Met up with Christy, Wesli, Cory, and Brittany at Spanky's for dinner

We stayed till closing, then hung around outside for another two hours

Christy kept freaking out about bugs and screaming and running around

Took Brittany back to her apartment and headed to Becky's

My dad was still up when we got there, so I talked to him for a few minutes before he fell asleep

[edgeofmyporch]

Summer: Day One

May 15, 2013

I guess today counts as my first day of summer. Wow. The semester is over and I moved out of my dorm around ten this morning. It kind of really sucked because I liked my room a lot this year. Lisa, Wesli, and Cory helped me move things to my car/my aunt's house. After we dropped everything off, Ethan called me so I had to go back up to the dorm and grab my ironing board. I actually got to say bye to him then though so that was cool; when we left, earlier, he was at his new apartment so I didn't get the chance to.

Headed back to The Ranch and helped Cory get his stuff from his car to his apartment, then we sat around talking about Pokemon and trying to figure out where to eat. Eventually we decided on Cheddar's. Wesli and I thought we were supposed to wait for Cory to leave the apartment parking lot, but turns out he ditched us. Awesome.

Wesli ordered their spinach cheese dip stuff, which is fantastic, and shared with everyone. Wesli, Cory, and Lisa all ordered chicken fingers while I, the rebel, ordered a jalapeno bacon cheeseburger. It was awesome. We finished eating and sat there talking for a while, but then Wesli had to leave for work. Said bye to Cory because I doubt I see him again until January. Lame. Pretty sure I'll see Wesli again tomorrow.

Lisa and I went and bothered my aunt, Becky, at work. I looked at the John Hardy Naga Collection bracelet I want and now I really want it. From there, we went to the mall and I bought Graham Mario Kart for the Wii because I don't think I can handle playing LEGO Batman anymore. 

At Becky's house, I played one circuit on Mario Kart, then completely crashed on the couch until Graham and Brolin came in running and screaming to wake me up. Immediately we started playing Mario Kart. Eventually Graham will be better at it. Eventually...

John ordered pizza from Dominoes, which isn't my favorite, but he did get pepperoni and jalapeno just for me so that was really great.

After dinner, I played the more Mario Kart.

About nine, Lisa and I left to go to the theatre to meet Sarah and a few other friends for Star Trek! Once they got there, we waited at the front of the line for a really long time. We played cards, which was fun. It's cool when everyone can play the card game you made up: Black Sheep. After a bit, Sarah gave her lecture on how Disney acquired Marvel and a whole bunch of other things, so that was very informative. Nika called me and had me reblog this because her roommate posted it and it got a bazillion notes in like five minutes: 

Neither of them understood why it got so many notes, so I had to explain the whole deal behind "moisturize me." Now they think it's hilarious. They feel so famous. It's actually kind of ridiculous how many notes it's getting. I don't know how many there will be when you click that link, but last time I checked, there were 25,971. Yepp. And right now, it's only been up for about six hours.

At midnight, we got to go into the theatre (duh). We had perfect seats and popcorn and were so ready. And then it started. And wow. And it was so perfect and awesome and wonderful. They did an incredible job with the 3D (I really like when Spock and Kirk had their hands on either side of the glass and you could actually see how thick the glass was between them) and yes. And the whole campaign around the movie was supposed to make you think that it was basically going to be the same as Star Trek 2, BUT IT WASN'T AT ALL! Everything about it was perfect. Well, I don't see why they couldn't have just used one of the other frozen people's blood to save Kirk...but whatever. 

After the movie, we all headed back to the parking lot and I hugged Sarah and had to say goodbye and that was really sad and now I'm really sad and I don't like leaving people. I get super sentimental and I don't like it. Emotions suck. I have almost cried several times today and that's really lame. Blegh. Maybe I'll see her again this summer, but more likely I won't see her again until January when I go back to Tech.

Back at Becky's, I set up camp on the couch for the night.

[tylerandsociety]

[tylerandsociety]

[edgeofmyporch]

That carlsbad at the bottom didn't happen...

Also I've decided that since I was terrible at keeping up, this is how I'll pretend to have kept up with my life.

[edgeofmyporch]

Day 133

(December 21)

I suppose I should post today even though it only just started. I haven't been doing much, really. I made it home from Lubbock and ended the semester with a 4.0 (making my overall GPA a 3.71)! It seems like everyone is getting a 4.0 this semester, but I'm certainly not complaining. Since I've been home, I picked Lisa up from the airport and took her family Christmas photos, went ice skating with Breanna, had Starbucks with Hilda and Avery, visited Vivian at work, and finished watching Dexter. I'm also sleeping all day and staying up all night, but that's ok because I don't have anything to do...except Defensive Driving...yeah...

Anyway, here's what actually happened during the Apocalypse:

[edgeofmyporch]

Day 110

(November 28)

Took a Research Methods test which wasn't too hard, hopefully

Ran back to my dorm to shower and take a nap before Sociology

Sociology was just "fill out a teacher evaluation and leave," so that took about ten seconds

Lunch with Sarah at The Market, then rushed to Atmo lab to study for our final

Apparently Atmospheric Science Lab finals are supposed to be hard as freaking Hell. Geez. I really didn't know what I was doing for pretty much any of it. It's a good thing she gave us a point of extra credit for every ten U.S. states we labelled correctly on a map! Also glad I know all fifty of them. Also glad that I only needed a 70 on the exam to make an "A" in the class!

Ran to the Foreign Language building to meet with Anthony Qualin, my Russian Language minor advisor, and found out that I have to take a 3000 and 4000 level Russian courses when I get back. I may just not get the minor because it might add another semester...but I might have to do it anyways unless I drop the honors college...which I might have to do to graduate when I want...

From there, I ran to Holden Hall to turn in my degree plan, which turned into me getting a new advisor and having to do a whole bunch of new degree stuff. Mike, my new Sociology advisor, decided he needed to walk me through everything that I already understand which took forever.

When he finally let me go, I ran to Starbucks to meet Katie so that we could work on our digital campaign for Advertising Writing, which we actually finished pretty quickly! 

Ran to the other side of campus and met up with some people to work on some stuff for a class, which worked out well because we actually got everything done "correctly"

Ran downstairs to Sam's Place and grabbed S'mores poptarts and ran to work

At work I turned in the Ad Writing project, except I found out that my dropbox folder for the class has been deleted. Which is awesome because it had EVERYTHING I need for that class. Awesome. I emailed the professor and he said he'd try and figure out what happened/if he had any of my things.

Finished my Atmo test, too! I managed to Google everything and hopefully get all of the right answers. But we'll see. 

Watched the two most recent episodes of DEXTER. I really love this show, a lot.

[edgeofmyporch]

Day 102-107

Happy Thanksgiving!

(November 20-25)

Yeah...so I'm not very good at this this semester...we'll see about next semester...

This will pretty much be a post for the whole break...

Tuesday

Drove to San Angelo because Grandad got air-lifted to San Antonio for a special surgery for his strokes

Got a ticket in Sterling City because a cop is jerk. He clocked me six miles an hour more than what I was going. Granted, I was going 80 in a 70, but still, I wasn't going 86. He also interrogated me about weed and my arrest record (neither of which I have). Ridiculous.

Had dinner in San Angelo with my parents and sister, then we drove to Austin to stay the night at Randy's house

Wednesday

Got up and I drove my mom's car to the hospital in San Antonio

Hung around the hospital for a while. Got to talk with Grandad, sort of. He can only say yes and no so I mostly talked at him. In the lobby, I just kinda watched Wreck-it-Ralph three times.

Left for a bit and had lunch on the Riverwalk at an italian place

My parents bought me a shirt from American Eagle

Then we headed back to the hospital...again

At Randy's, Taryn and I watched Zombieland

Thursday

Actually got to sleep a little bit today, so that was cool

Watched Captain America, Iron Man, and Iron Man 2

Had Thanksgiving dinner, which was actually pretty decent

Sat upstairs for a bit while everyone had pie; I couldn't really handle all of the noise and people

Once everyone was done, I got a piece...which was mostly whipped cream

Played Halo 4 with Randy for a bit, then went to bed

Friday

Back to the hospital all day which was cool because Grandad was doing a little better and we got to say goodbye to him and Grandmommy

Started watching Game of Thrones

Had dinner at County Line on the Riverwalk

Saturday

Back in the car to go to San Angelo...

Got there in time to go to the mall, too bad I could not find a thing for my parents to buy me. Believe me, I tried.

Had dinner at Long John Silver's/A&W which was actually really dreadful

Went to see Red Dawn, which ended up being pretty good. Of course I'd rather Josh Peck have died in the end...

Sunday

Got down Grandmommy's Christmas stuff and took forever to set up the tree

Ended up leaving a lot later than I wanted to, but I got free lunch at Chicken Express, so that was cool

Drove back to Tech

Unpacked all of my stuff and watched more Game of Thrones

Turned in an extra credit assignment for Diet and Exercise

Eventually fell asleep

[edgeofmyporch]

Day Fifty-One

I don't like working out in the morning, especially when it's cold and we have to do weird circuit things in the grass. We have a perfectly large recreational center, why can't we stay in there? 

Didn't really have time to change before going to MCOM RM, so I just went to class in athletic clothes (which is something I do not do, ever)

Class consisted of reviewing for our exam, Wednesday, so we go out early.

Grabbed a bacon, sausage, egg, and cheese croissant sandwich and hung out in my room for a bit. I studied, too.

Walked to Holden to take my Sociology exam...I finished in nine minutes. I really don't think people understand test etiquette; there were plenty of seats in the room, and two to either side of me (the person next to whom I usually sit was late, so she sat somewhere else. No, I'm not the weird kid that sits all alone because no one wants to be near them...usually). So you know, PLENTY of seats. But for some reason, I seemed like I needed people to sit next to me. These two guys sat on either side of me. They were huge. Like, they took up their seat and half of mine (if you're doing the math, that means each of them took up half of my seat...which left none for me). It was really uncomfortable and awful and they were obviously cheating off of me, which is stupid because we already had all the questions and all of the answers so all they needed to do was to have looked at them before coming to class. Ridiculous. I don't understand. I just want to be alone when I'm testing because people bother me. 

Walked to the SUB to meet Cory and Wesli. They were eating lunch so I got a smoothie. Apparently I go there a lot because the girl didn't even ask me what I wanted, she just started making it...

Wesli is the worst. She's working at the new theatre and is going to get to see a pre-screening of Skyfall. Kind of hate her...a lot. She's the only other person that wanted to see it. Now I will have no one to go with. Awesome.

Headed back to my dorm for a minute and took a nap before running to work, woo.

[edgeofmyporch]

Day Fifty

Had a mcom research methods group meeting (our group name is The Thundercats) in the library. Jonathan, Hallie, and Maggie were there, which means we were only missing Tia. 

We were actually really successful and got our entire survey done and emailed to our professor! I'll put it up here once it's been finalized and EVERYONE (in college) SHOULD TAKE IT. 

Headed back to my dorm for a bit, then to Becky and John's for dinner.

Ashley and Amy came by. Everyone was sick and depressed, but the food was really good. John made burgers with jalapenos and cheese in them! There was apple cake and ice cream for dessert, awesome.

Ended up going home really early. Tried to go to bed early, too, but ended up laying in bed until four before falling asleep. 

[edgeofmyporch]

Day Forty-Nine

I literally laid in my bed all day watching Nip/Tuck (my MCOM Research Methods professor suggested I watch it. Now I feel horrible about myself...)

Eventually texted Marian to go to dinner. 

Cory walked in as I was walking out, so I invited him.

Ended up at Cheddar's.

Stood outside for a while.

Cory started smoking because he's an idiot.

I went inside. 

Sat down. Ordered. Ate. Left.

Slept when I got back to the dorm.

[edgeofmyporch]

Day Forty-Seven

(October 11, 2012)

Had a typical Thursday, which means nothing here because I haven't posted about a typical Thursday since halfway through summer...but that doesn't matter

I was going to do Turbo Tone with Dani at 8:20, but Wesli had already invited me to Nightmare on 19th Street with her, Christy, and Ashley at nine, so I had to skip working out. 

Met them at a gas station and had to wait a while for Ashley to show up, so I stole Christy and we went to get a jacket from my dorm

Paid $20 to go to the haunted house...

The first one (an insane asylum) was pretty good. Christy was freaking out so I was able to stay calm. We were in front this time, so that was kind of a little more intense.

The other three (actual haunted house, hillbillies, and "lost world") weren't as scary, either because we were in back or because I became immune... I kept making comments on everything because otherwise I might have died, but still. I'm definitely not the target market for haunted houses. 

It was really amusing though, at the end we accidentally went out of the emergency exit and one of the lost souls started wailing, "You're going the wrong way!!!!!" We kind of laughed at first, then realized we were dumb and turned back. When we did, she started giggling, "Yes, yes, that's where you go, yes, good!" 

After we finished, we went to Sonic for a while. I got ice cream and Ashley got an Ocean Water. They closed super early, which was really lame...I think they were painting inside or something because they wrapped everything up. It looked like there were dead bodies on the tables...