First Day of Sophomore Year

This weekend I...

...was an extra in a friend's film.
...started working on a new design project.
...moved into my new dorm room.

Yesterday was the first day of classes, and this year my school week is pretty light. I have all morning classes, and I am done by 11 AM, with the exception of Monday and Tuesday where I have 6 PM classes.

Move-in day was slow, which is good since I didn't want this year to go any faster than it had to.

I'm hoping for a good, productive year at West Liberty.

Assistant Director :)

Today, I had an adventure in filming with Li Cui and classmates from Wheeling Park High School. Waking up at 6:30 AM, I probably shouldn't have driven. But I drove to his house so we could pick up some equipment early in the morning.

Pittsburgh was an adventure with traffic and loading the car with sandbags and apple boxes. I had to sit in the back with the giant flag under my chin so it wouldn't block the back window.

On the way to the house we were filming at, we ran into traffic and had to go down an ON-RAMP. It was kinda fun and dangerous, but others were in front of us. We arrived a bit late.

Filming went pretty smoothly, but we didn't finish today. More sometime next week, and then I get to be an extra in the background :D

The Scrambling Storm Shuffle

So, today we had a ginormous storm. It started out with a downpour as soon as I got home from work. I just walked in the door, so I was lucky.

The deck furniture, however, was not. The next thing we saw was our swing, A-frame and all, blowing off the deck inches away from my car. The chairs flew off the deck, and their covers fell off. We scrambled to secure everything on the ground and dragged the covers inside. The plants were hastily shoved under the bay window, and the front step’s plants were moved to the safety of the porch. We were soaked when we were done and took turns watching the table to make sure it didn’t fall over as the others changed into dry clothes.

The only casualty was the swing’s canopy. It got a tiny hole in it that my mom will try to fix soon.

It’s so nice out now, with cool air smelling like rain. I would sit out there, but it’s all wet. =P

Guen already loves my blanket :)

It's really green, not purple. Taken on my phone.

The Home Stretch

Well, it's 20 days until we move back into our dorms at West Liberty.

Today, my mom, sister, cousin, and I went to the campus to deal with some minor financial aid issues, and to see if we could preview my future room.

Surprisingly, my roommate and I got into the honors dorm, and we have never been in the hall before. It's pretty awesome. We have our own bathroom that we share with two other girls and walk-in closet that's our own. This made me even more excited to start school, as it's so much better than the community bathrooms of our previous year.

With less than a month until we go back to college, it's going to be more difficult to get together with friends. But I'm going to try. =)


In an extremely good mood, so something will probably go wrong, haha.

Blanket

Okay, this picture is the progress of my blanket. It's not too far along, but it's as wide as a full sized bed. It is made of Caron One Pound in Leaf Green.

It takes about 15 minutes per row, which is 200 stitches.

Hopefully it will be done by the colder weather, but I'd be happy with halfway done.

Constant knitting causes vertigo. Blech.

More updates to come!

Bye Bye Bubble Phone

My old Tracfone was starting to wear out after two years of constant use and an incident involving a toilet. It was time to upgrade to a nicer phone, even though I was sad to see my little black phone be put away.

At Best Buy, my family and I picked out AT&T phones, after much waiting and changing of ideas. My mom's choice wasn't there, so she had to get the Solstice. I chose a red Xenon, and my sister went all expensive on us and got the only phone that wasn't free with our plan: the Impression.

After a few mishaps activating the phones, we were on our way. I loaded all my contacts from the bubble phone onto the new one and listened as the rest of my family were having difficulties getting used to their phones.

All in all, it was fun to get a new phone and unlimited texting. That's the best part, because Tracfone was prepaid.

This is Why I Dislike Breaks

Yesterday, I came home for spring break and had to be off the hill by 1 PM. Sounds easy, but it was a hellish day.

First, I had to wake up at nine while my boyfriend brought my car around back of my dorm so we could pack it. That went smoothly, even though we were all tired. We parked the car and went to breakfast, no problem.

I had a class at 10, and we didn't do much, which made me mad as I could have made that my getting-ready time.

After class, I quickly got the rest of the stuff I didn't pack earlier together. I waited until 12:30 before leaving, because it only takes 30 minutes max to get down.

One problem - my car was on E. The whole trip. And the nearest gas station was in my neighborhood. I was coasting down hills and going just under the speed limit.

I had to pull over because I thought I had lost my cell phone, but it was in the seat next to me. I freaked out thinking I had to turn around and waste more gas.

It gets worse. I made it to the gas station, calmed down, and pulled up beside a pump. I don't think I pulled up enough, but I didn't think anything of it. I paid and started pumping gas. I wasn't looking and heard a sloshing noise. Yes, my gas tank had overflowed a bit. I estimated about a dollar waste as I stopped it quickly. Frantically, I used paper towels to sop it all up. Thank God a water drip was dropping right above there, so the gas was diluted a bit.

I cautiously turned on the car, thinking I was going to explode (New driver angst). I went home and turned off the car, sitting there for a moment. Then I hosed the car down just in case, and because the sides are filthy. Thank you March mud.

Going home is always eventful, but not as much as yesterday.

Spring Break is Coming

This Friday, I am heading home because it's Spring Break. Sadly, Henry has to go home to Maryland and I won't see him for a week, but it'll give me time to catch up on some things and ask my parents if I can go camping this summer with him...

My figure toning class ended yesterday, so it's easier to sleep in.

The swan is coming along nicely. The neck is done and I will work on it more during the next week.

That's all for now!

Making a Graceful Swan

Image by fesoj via Flickr

So, I was looking through pictures on Google of dragonflies. One thing stuck in my mind: They're not too pretty close up. I decided to scratch the insect idea.

After typing in 'flying creature' in the image search, I saw something that made me think, "Duh!"

I have decided to make a swan out of recycled plastic. Obviously, since my last name is Swann, I laughed a bit at the irony. Or lack of.

Today was our first day working on the project, and my professor had many plastic bottles for our use. I picked out a lot of white bottles, using a few clear ones I had brought with me. I'm going to use the water bottles for the neck and stuff them with plastic Wal-Mart bags.

One bottle was Snuggle Fabric Softener. Not thinking, I turned it over to cut the neck off and spilled Sweet Almond Essence on my jeans. Needless to say, I smelled pretty good for the rest of the class.

In my next class, I had to draw a classmate using various techniques. I say 2 out of 4 of my drawings were awesome. I'm starting to enjoy conte crayons. They helped bring out the skin tone, and made it look a lot better than the black and white version. She seemed to like the drawings, so I hope I didn't offend her.

Crossing my fingers for a three hour delay so I can sleep in again. Only having two out of five classes on Thursdays are great for my sleep patterns.

Masking Tape Shoe???

A few weeks ago, my Design II professor assigned a strange project to us. We were supposed to make a shoe...completely out of masking tape. Considering the last project was to make something out of cardboard, we weren't all that surprised.

Today was the turn-in date. I had finished everything except the tread on the bottom of the shoe. I knew I was going to get points taken off, but I didn't really think much of it.

My teacher seemed to enjoy it, so I think I'll at least get an A.

Earlier in the day, I had to give a speech. I hate public speaking, but it was a required course for my major. The speech was informative on the history of knitting. I like knitting, so it was a good topic. Everyone seemed to like it as I stood in the front, shaking from head to toe.

It's been an eventful, stressful day. I'm just glad it's over.

Next project: Making a flying organism out of plastic. I chose a dragonfly. :)

It's been A WHILE

Well, things have been going pretty well since the last update. I'm still in school and haven't murdered my roommate. She's too awesome for that. I had final exams for the first semester, had a long winter break, then another week without class during the second week of February. Snowpocalypse, anyone?

My experiences in college have been progressively more entertaining, like my 1 AM conversations with my roommate. They turn into probable ideas. This has given me the idea to either do a web comic or blog some more. Maybe both? First, I must re-learn how to use my tablet. I'm rusty. And it's a new computer since the last time I used it during the summer.

Anywho, I'm celebrating 6 months being with Henry on the 26th. It's surprising how long you last with someone you shared conversation with while eating ice cream and tossing a beach ball. He's sweet, and it's never a dull day.

I got a 3.82 in my first semester, even with a B in history.

My hall mates are all right. They're loud, and dwindling a bit. Three rooms are empty on one end. Hm...

College. Gotta love it.