I lost it. I know that all of us bloggers talk about being on top of our work, and getting all of our studying done way ahead of time exactly like the perfect college student is suppose. But I’m sorry, that’s just not how it happens all of the time. Life gets in the way and sometimes your scrambling at the last minute to finish reading over those notes or memorizing that last formula. That was a glimpse into the first part of my week. I had three tests between Wednesday night at 7 o’clock and Thursday at noon so needless to say I was just a tad stressed. I think (hope) they all went well and the fact that I go to class and stay on top of the readings definitely helped. I would say that I learned my lesson and I’m not going to procrastinate again, but really, I’m human, of COURSE I’m going to find myself studying at the last minute, again, at some point in time.

BUT it’s Halloween and after all of the craziness of my exams was over my sister and I went on a Halloween expedition. We spent a few good hours yesterday putting together my costume and I’m pretty excited about how it’s going to turn out! A few friends and I decided this year that we wanted to do a theme together so after much debate the vote turned out a decision of being the Seven Deadly Sins. I’m greed, which I have to say, isn’t the easiest thing in the world to portray; however, I think I’ve got it down pretty good! I’m on duty Saturday night because I’m a really good co-RA and took it from a friend who had something else to do so tonight is going to be my only night to get to show off the costume. Tomorrow night should be entertaining though, the RA I’m on duty with is one of my really good friends so we have plans in the work to sit and eat junk food and watch scary movies the entire time, I’m pumped!

(Ryan put up a dark picture so I figured I’d put up a fun one!)

Well I should get my butt out of Michael Hall and over to North Campus, I have a meeting with my internship advisor in a little bit to *hopefully* {keep your fingers crossed!} get my internship stuff worked out for next year! Have a SAFE and happy Halloween!!!

On Saturday night a friend and I went downtown to Spot Coffee, a local coffee shop, for a domestic violence awareness event. There were different poetry readings, speakers and a lot of different musical acts raising awareness about domestic violence. However what was interesting about this particular event was it wasn’t only raising awareness about just domestic violence. It had a calendar that they were handing out for the next month of different things that you can do everyday to raise awareness about all different kinds of abuse; things as simple as praising a father for spending time with his children (thanks Dad!) or teaching children to use their words appropriately rather than lashing out or using violence. It was really interesting and very eye-opening.

This week I am kicking into high gear on my quest to find an internship for next semester. I have had a couple of leads on some and they haven’t really led anywhere so I am really hoping to find something. I have been kind of disappointed that I haven’t found one yet because I am so excited to go out into the field and get some experience that I guess I just didn’t realize it was going to be this hard to find something. But that’s okay, I’m sure whatever I find and wherever I get placed will be great and I’ll get some awesome experience.

Okay time to get some more Sociology reading done before I let myself go to bed. I have two tests coming up this week but I think I’ve gotten a lot done this past weekend so I should be in good shape!

P.S. I’ll put a dis-claimer on a Happy Late Birthday to my fellow blogger/co-worker Stephanie!

Okay so it’s been said that once you get to college you resort back to your kindergarten ways. Not in the sense that you need your Mom every step of the way but in the sense that all of a sudden you have the flexibility of your schedule to begin to take naps again; and as my fellow blogger Andrew often talks about, we tend to take full advantage of that. I, have never gotten that chance all semester, since my schedule usually keeps me out of the residence halls from 9 am to sometimes around 10 pm. It what I love, being busy, constantly having something to do, I think I’m much happier that way, but it can get tiring at times. So today, when one of my afternoon classes was cancelled I hustled my butt back to South Campus and enjoy a nice two hour nap. Now I fully understand why college students and kindergartners alike love it!

This week has been quite a relaxing one, which I’ve really appreciated since next week will be kind of stressful with two bigger exams. So this weekend will be spent huddled up in the library here on South campus with my sister, studying away.

That’s the other exciting news!!!!! Tuesday was the first official snowfall of the 2008-2009 winter in Buffalo!! =D As much as I love the summer and fall, I’m looking forward to everything being blanketed in that white fluff again. With it snowing well before Halloween I’m sure we’ll be seeing plenty of it.

What a busy week this past week has been! In addition to having one of the best birthdays I’ve had in a while my schedule was unusually stressful.

On Thursday I had the privilege of being invited to a reception held before the presentation by the UB Reads Author this year, Khaled Hosseini. It was a very nice reception with a lot of the student leaders from different departments as well as professional staff from New Student Programs and Dennis Black, our Vice President of Student Affairs. After the reception we all walked over to the Distinguished Speaker Series together and I met up with my RA staff. I thought that Khaled Hosseini did a really good job. He didn’t speak only about his book but about what it was like to be a Muslim immigrant in America and his memories of a peaceful Afghanistan. It was really interesting to get a different perspective.

Than yesterday was Open House here at the university! I am someone that loves Open House! I love getting to meet a ton of perspective students and I really enjoy sharing everything that I know and love about the school with people who are interested in coming here. I hope everyone that came out saw everything that they wanted to see and got all of their questions answered! It was awesome to see everyone!

Today has been a lazy day, I think I deserved it after a hectic week. The Bills had a very nice win today and the Patriots will play their game tomorrow night. For now I’m going to cuddle back into bed with a book until the Red Sox Game 7 against the Rays is on!!!

So there’s only about 30 minutes left until my birthday and I’ve already had an awesome birthday! Today a group of my friends took me out to dinner and then afterwards a different group of friends took me out for dessert! It was a yummy night! And one of my very good friends got me the nicest fleece for these cooler fall days! Tomorrow is not going to be that nice of a day, with work and a midterm most of my day will be spent studying.

Also this weekend my Mom and little sister came up to visit! It was an awesome visit especially since I’ve only been home for like day or two visits since May. I am counting down the days until winter break when I will have almost four solid weeks to just enjoy being home. I think it’s hard for my sister since both our other sister and I am out here in Buffalo so she’s been trying to get use to being home alone without the two of us. It doesn’t feel the same without her here which is just another reason I’m looking forward to the Christmas season.

On Monday was our Discovery Day here on campus. Discovery Day is kind of like a little Open House for those that can’t make it to our big Open House coming up on this Saturday. Although I was in and out all day long it looked like we had a good amount of people so I hope everyone had a great time!

Well it’s almost midnight so I’m going to go get ready to sing Happy Birthday and then hit the sack for a very busy day…

Tonight a friend and I went to a presentation by Frank Warren. Frank Warren has been called “the most trusted stranger in America”. He started a project called PostSecret. It is where thousands of people from around the world have sent in postcards with their secrets written on it. He then compiles them and has published four different books with all of them in it. He was an amazing speaker.

The presentation started off with him explaining how PostSecret started and where it has come today. Then he showed a slide show of a lot of different secrets that couldn’t make the book for whatever reason. Some of them are funny, some of them are racy, some of them are heartfelt. Than the last few minutes of the program was for people to come up to the microphone and talk about anything they wanted. One woman revealed to her sister that she was pregnant, one guy revealed that his goodness was going to change the world, another talked about a struggle early in her life. It was amazing to see strangers hugging one another and people revealing things about themselves that they had never told anyone.

But time to get back to work, my Mom and sister are coming up to visit this weekend to kick off birthday celebrations!!!! That’s right t-minus 6 more dayssss

Finally finally finally!!!!!

My favorite season, by far, is fall. I love when the weather gets cooler, the leaves start to change and everyone is getting ready for winter. Autumn has definitely fallen on Buffalo, even the frost on the ground when I woke up this morning had me excited!

On Sunday my co-RA Jason and I hosted a “Helping with the Heights” program. It is a civic engagement program run through the Leadership center here on campus where the college students give back to the residents in the area by cleaning up the local neighborhood off of our South Campus.  We had a few people come out, not as many as we would have liked, but it was still a great time for the people that did show up. They were able to give back to the community in which they live in and got some awesome pizza out of it!

Also this past weekend a few of my friends and I went apple picking at an orchard in the area. Just another fall favorite that got us out of the house and out in the crisp air. This farm was HUGE! It had everything from apple orchards to a pumpkin patch to animals to feed. My only disappointment was that we had to leave before I was able to get some homemade apple cider donuts, something that growing up I use to look forward to every year!

But now it’s time to finish up some work in order to be able to focus all of my attention onto the second presidential debate, be sure to stay informed and tune in!

So as a college student life gets hectic. I’ll echo what Steph said a few weeks ago about how these four years seem to just be flying by. I can’t believe that I only have three semesters left. And it’s not just the school work or the extra curricular activities that get crazy, this is a time of our lives when there’s a lot going on in our relationships with our family, significant others and our friends. In other words sometimes it just seems like there’s always drama, whether that be good or bad.

Yesterday I had dinner with a mentor of mine who I hadn’t seen since May when she moved on to bigger and better things. It was awesome to see her. As much as I’ve missed her actual presence in my life, running into her everyday, cracking jokes about people in our lives, I’ve missed her guidance and her listening ear more than anything. Spilling everything from the last few months to her and having her smile because she knows exactly what I’m talking about was so comforting. There were several people I was close to last year that graduated and I’m lucky that she is one that is still in the area and is able to meet up every once and a while.

So while there are things in my life that sometimes just weigh so heavily on my mind, be it that exam tomorrow or tension in a relationship, it’s nice to remember that near or far, there are people in our lives that we can turn to to remind us to enjoy the little things. Like the fact that I only have 13 more days until my birthday…