Its the end of the semester as we know it...

Today is my last day of classes for the semester! From here on out, the rest of this calendar year will be filled with hanging out with friends I have deserted during my hard studying, celebrating holidays with family, and much much crocheting. Also, up until about next Tuesday I will be checking my student account to check on grades that teachers will refuse to post until the last moment possible. If only they knew that I actually care about what I'm making in my classes!

Some things I hope to also do on my Christmas vacation:
- Ice skating- I consider this a must for the Christmas vacation in lieu of actually living somewhere where it snows regularly in the winter.
- Read- This semester has taken a great toll on my reading. I need to finish some books I have borrowed from my dear friend Sara, and I wouldn't mind reading some Dean Koontz books.
- Spend some quality time in Georgia with Alex's family, and then bring him back here for New Years
- Get some extra work on the side- Yeah I know, this is supposed to be my down time, but I really need the money.
- Start big crochet projects- Like afghans for certain boyfriend's mother's birthday.

I'm hoping all that will keep me busy for the month I will be on vacation. If not, be sure that I will be blogging, so give me some fun ideas to take up my time!

Activism at its finest

Let me start by saying that I'm usually a pretty peaceful person. Currently in the state of Tennessee, namely the Board of Regents system which runs many state universities including my own MTSU, we are going through a huge budget crisis. To make a long story very short, the Chancellor of the Board of Regents has written a memo to the state of Tennessee to "suggest" a few changes that could take place to reduce this budget crisis.

If you want to read the whole shebang, visit this link.

I will simplify the high points that the group I am joining are rallying against.

Some of Chancellor Mannings "ideas":

"Specifying in the curriculum that students must take a defined number of on-line courses in order to graduate at the baccalaureate and associate levels."

"Designing master's level degrees and work to be taken exclusively on-line."

"Establishing tuition differentials for lower division and upper division courses."

"Establishing tuition differentials for different majors."

"Eliminating or consolidating more programs."

"Reconceptualize faculty workload, moving away from defining it in terms of number of courses taught and toward defining it in terms of the number of students taught."

"Reduce academic work scholarship amounts so available funds can be distributed to more students."


If you didn't pick it out from reading any of these ideas, what Chancellor Manning is proposing is discrimination. Tuition differentials for lower/upper division courses means that those students who are struggling to make ends meet while in in lower division classes such as pre-requisite courses are going to find it that much harder to pay for school when their junior and senior years roll around. If students need a great reason to quit school, there it is laid out for them.
Tuition differentials for different academic majors is definitely discriminatory because it means that a Pre-Med student might have to pay more for school than an English major. If they choose to do this they wont have to worry about eliminating programs, because there will be no more students to participate in these programs. They will be choosing either other schools who do offer those programs for cheaper, or they will just choose an alternate career goal. Does this seem like a life-changing decision to anyone else other than me? Does it seem like we're forcing people to choose between their dreams and their pocketbooks?

I could rant on and on about this subject, which I fully intend to do in a more public manner in the upcoming days. I will be joining SOS (Save Our School), a non-partisan, pan-campus organization of people who would like the Board of Regents to know our stance on the issues. This does affect more than one school, so I hope to be able to spread the word to other Board of Regents schools also.

Have a wonderful activist weekend!

I'm pattern crazy!

I'm working towards a goal: to collect as many cool, easy crochet patterns as possible to make myself some pretty awesome clothing accessories. I just now printed off a rasta hat pattern (I know, my hair is the farthest thing from having dreadlocks, but its kind of a rage on campus at the moment so I'm drinking the kool-aid).

By the way, I had a wonderful weekend. The boyfriend came in just in time for us to whisk away to Opryland. Here's a picture of the four of us: From the left, Tommy, Lindsay, me, and Alex.



And MTSU did pull through for me with a win, I think 52-14 was the final score. It was a pretty nasty game for North Texas, so Alex and I left at the start of the fourth quarter to go get our promised free wings at Toot's since MTSU scored over 40 points.

So thats my weekend and my current obsession. Got any good simple crochet patterns?

Ready for the cold busy weekend!

First off I would like to mention I saw snow in Tennessee...in November. Karabeth might know a little something about how rare that is from her experience living in this area. I cant lie, I was wondering if we were going to get a snow day today, not like it would have mattered since I am no longer in public school. MTSU only closes for massive threats to campus made by freshmen who dont want to take midterms. How sad considering if we closed for snow, we would all be happy and youthful, instead of scared.

Second, I would like to say that I have officially lost a disconnected older brother and gained a friend. Brent (or Ed, whatever he goes by these days) stopped by Murfreesboro midway through his trip home from a college around Memphis. He knew that I had been stressed by some things lately that only he could understand, so he arrived very late last night and we stayed up into the wee hours talking about everything going on in our lives. Such a good guy he even treated me to breakfast before he had to head out on the road to home. Im excited that I no longer have to be jealous of all my friends who have relationships with their siblings which is something I struggled with for a loooonnnggg time.

Third, I have a boyfriend arriving today! Alex is coming in for the weekend and I have chocked it full of events. This evening, after I get off work, I will swing by to pick him up and we are rushing up to Opryland Hotel to see the ICE exhibit with my good friend Lindsay and her husband Tommy. Heres a link to the website since I cannot possibly describe how cool this looks . After this escapade, we will then continue to ramble around the Opryland Hotel which is so beautiful this time of year and maybe eat dinner at either the Hotel or Opry Mills mall which has really cool themed restaurants like the Aquarium restaurant. Cant wait!!

Tomorrow we have the MTSU football game versus North Texas which we should win (otherwise I will feel abused from what the temperature says its going to be tomorrow.) I must be vindicated by a win! Tommorow night I am hosting a bonfire to hopefully celebrate the win and get rid of wood that would otherwise just rot beside my house.

So overall, its been a pretty okay start to the weekend and I hope that it continues to go up from here!

Whoohoo for Spring semester

I wont have a life!

Two Night classes, a distance learning class, and a regular class on monday's and wednesday's, and I am waiting on spots to open up for another management class. All just so I can graduate on time....in May 2010!

If you didnt know already, my major is Business Education, which means I'm going to teach high school business classes. I'm so ready to get out of college and back to high school. It really was one of the best times of my life. I intended to make the most out of high school, and even though I think I could have done some things better, I wouldn't take anything back.

It really bothers me when people say they hated high school, especially those people I went to school with. They didn't to seem to have such a bad time, and really its not that hard to get through high school. I might just be the little positivist, but I really wish some people would get off their high horse and just admit that they had fun. Isn't it amazing how people would rather give you the negative version of things?

I think thats going to be one thing I am going to drill into my students when I'm teaching. Lecture name: HAVE FUN, because the next few years of your life will be spent in the library studying things like Statistics.

That will be the one class that I will have a pop quiz at the end of.

Have a great weekend!

I'm back from Chicago

It was a really great trip. Here's a pic of me amongst the crowds of people on Michigan Avenue.


So it was a weekend chocked full of sessions on successful entrepreneurship and then going out at night to experience Chicago. I was able to experience all forms of transportation, including the L train, and definitely felt like I was in an ER episode at times. I think we did about everything you could fit into 3 nights.

Im tired, even though I slept all afternoon after getting home. Hopefully I'll get back to normal soon.

What did I do last night?

I danced. Yeah, thats right I danced. I heard what you said Miss Karabeth and I thought of better things to do than watch tv. I knew how it was going to turn out and I was not about to stew on it in my recliner (which I eventually passed out in from exhaustion).

So I put on my work out shorts, pulled on my comfy socks and put in some old mix cd's I made when I was 13. I turned all the lights off and lit all my candles. I danced til I was out of breath, sat for a minute, then got back up and danced some more.

I think I had a positive election night. Obviously I had tired myself out so much that I woke up at 1:30 am in my recliner, a victim of sleep after sitting down to rest and check in to see the news for a minute.

I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Tonight I get to pack and get ready for my voyage to Chicago. Maybe I'll need another dance party before I go to sleep tonight.

Chicago here I come!