Reasons Why I Hate Finals

1. they're stressful
2. they involve a large amount of sleep loss
3. in addition to ME being stressed, everyone ELSE is stressed out
4. everyone ELSE being stressed out + spending a bunch of time together = not a good combination
5. they involve packing up and moving
6. the library is PACKED
7. Even when i DON'T want to study, everyone else is studying so i have nothing to do
8. I especially hate this year because I'm not done until FRIDAY.
9. They're so much of my final grade. Why should my whole grade suffer that much if i have an A.D.D. day?
10. I'm losing motivation because I keep thinking about camp
11. I'm losing motivation just because it's the end of the semester
12. Sara Touchet feels the need to "be the ying to my yang" and make lists about why she LIKES finals week.
13. Then Touchet starts thinking I hate her because I told her i was writing #12
14. even when i take a break from studying, i feel guilty because i should be studying

But really, i hate finals. A lot a lot a lot. Especially since one of my final projects got thrown away the day before it was due when my roommate decided to clean our apartment. I feel like I did a good job of containing my anger.

I have my anatomy final tomorrow. I need to make a 105 to fairly make an A. My professor said to get "as close as I could" and he would try to help me out as much as he could. At first, I was just going to blow it off because I can make a 40 and still make a B, but I'm going for it.

#14 is happening.

scheming

Because Emily Clardy was not in attendance last night, and subsequently unable to document our shenanigans for the rest of us to plagiarize, it looks like it's my responsibility now.

Last night, Elizabeth Hughes and I wanted to play Super Nintendo at BCM. The FCA band was doing auditions and interviews, so we couldn't play nintendo right away, much to our dismay. Sara Touchet and Matt Stephens and I started doing homework like the studious, responsible students we are. Elizabeth convinced me to come outside and water ballooned me, thus checking me off of her infamous "hit list".

Today is Elizabeth's birthday, and since it has gotten to be thoroughly annoying with her not having a cell phone, Megan Addis decided to be gracious and give her an old cellular device. While Elizabeth was distracted with said cellular device, the stash of water balloons was stolen out of her car and her car alarm began to go off. Elizabeth was then bombarded with water balloons when she went to turn off her alarm. Payback.

Our team lines were a little blurry - but after a little while of running around with swords and lightsabers and pitchers full of water, filling up the last few water balloons, locking each other out of the building, and mostly just ME GETTING WET, Megan and I were able to sneak out the back while Elizabeth was distracted. At this point, I think she was carrying around a pitcher of water and a large rock for reasons unbeknownst to us.

We drove off - schemed - called our cohorts and schemed some more - and finally went back to BCM and pushed Elizabeth into the car and kidnapped her to Waffle House (Me, Megan, Matt and Elizabeth - Touchet stayed to do work) where we continued to scheme. Because, see, during this time SARA TOUCHET was not wet, and had turned on ALL OF US. That little smooth talker. So, we devised a plan. We filled the water balloons, hid behind BCM, while Elizabeth called Touchet screaming about us throwing her in the lake and how she needed her to come pick her up. She fell for it.

Then we got her too. glorious. oh, except by this time it was after midnight and none of us had made a substantial dent in our homework.

man i'm gonna miss this.

easter

I wrote this easter weekend, and never posted it. until now.

Today I drove home from Clemson. I wasn't really in a driving mood and I was pretty anxious to just get home. I took the toll road. I never take the toll road. I'm still a little mad that they raised the price - a classic reason why i do NOT take the toll road, i'm way too cheap to spend an extra $5 on a round trip just to gain 5 extra minutes.

As i pulled up to the second toll booth and rolled down my window to give the attendant my $1.25, she told me that the car in front of me had paid my toll for me and asked her to tell me "happy easter".
i didn't really know what to think at first. i was grateful that someone was willing to go before me and pay the toll that i owed. But then, I realized, that's what Easter is really about - Jesus going before us and paying our toll.

so, i handed her my $1.25, told her to use it on the person behind me, and drove off.

I'm not a boring person

Pam told me my blog layout was boring, and since I am "not a boring person" i should change it. I kind of like it though. it's easy to read.

comments from the peanut gallery?

bittersweet

Summer is almost HERE. three more days of class, two papers, and three finals away from sweet freedom.  The end of the semester is kind of a bittersweet time this year. I'm looking forward to having a break from the insanity that is nursing school, but I'm going to miss Clemson a lot. 

I'm going to miss my friends. I'm going to miss Megan and Pam and Clardy and Elizabeth and Touchet and Christy and Sam and Hannah and so many of the other people in my life here that I'm so thankful for. I'm going to miss late study nights at BCM. I'm going to miss sporadic trips to Taco Bell and Palm's during those late study nights. I'm going to miss baking cookies for John Cummings, and potentially my love/hate relationship with Anatomy. I'm going to miss Tuesday/Thursday lunches with Laura and hanging out in her dorm. I'm going to miss mapping Kudera's train of thought and tallying how many times he says "um" just to pass the time. I'm going to miss studying at Starbucks with Kathleen. I'm going to miss S7G and my roommates. I'm going to miss BCM on Thursday nights, and I'm going to miss Crosspoint a lot. 

but don't get me wrong. camp is 28 days away and I can't wait. I'm excited about camp and spending the summer with Matt and Kathleen, as well as my friends from last summer and the fantastic new staff. I'm excited about starting clinicals in the fall and getting to finally wear "the uniform" along with the stethescope. I'm excited about Tigertown and living with Megan and Lauren. 

But at this point, I'm stuck somewhere in between wanting time to speed up and praying it will slow down. 

Emily Clardy

I'm thankful for Emily Clardy. One of the reasons, among many others, that I am thankful for her is for her storytelling ability. Her description of Thursday night is so much better than I think I would be able to do. Mostly, i like being portrayed as the evil mastermind, because i definitely was not. My only role was to propose the idea of switching the evil plan from Christy to Pam, as well as providing transportation to BiLo and self-serve car wash expertise. However, I will let my dear friend Emily tell you the rest of the story:

I'm SO blessed to have the most amazing people on this earth as my best friends! Last night, April 15, 2010 was a night for the books! After a great night of BCM, everybody was standing around talking, enjoying cake and cookies....but evil was stirring in the room in the form of sarah strickland, matthew stephens, elizabeth hughes, megan addis, and MYSELF! ha! For a couple of weeks this group including Pamela Lyons, had been planning to trash Christy Brown's car. Tonight was the night. We had some communication difficulties between all of us and mother goose whose name will be kept in discretion for her safety...but it was finally coming together! Sarah and I ran to Bi-Lo to buy saran wrap and 1200 pretty little post-its! When we got back to the bcm building with the ammo loaded up in Strickland's car, we walked in and encountered a beautiful, smiling, precious Christy Brown. But where was Pamela Michelle Lyons? PLAYING ULTIMATE! She had also supposedly been the mastermind of this project and did not provide us with the information we needed to take down Christy's truck, and now she was playing ultimate? what?! oooooohhhhh no. Sarah Strickland's evil lightbulb got super bright as a great twist to the plot formed in her sweet little head. "Let's get Pam." "Agreed." Well, we got Christy in on it too.

Before you know it me, matt stephens, christy brown, sarah strickland, megan addis, elizabeth hughes, and sara touchet are covering Pam's car in a mess of love! Katelyn Cooper watched us a bit and laughed, and tons of people continued driving by and laughing and being like WOOOOOO YEA!!! but that coulda been the alcohol in them...it was Thursday. Either way...it caused quite a speculation! Sara Touchet had an amazing idea to get chocolate syrup and write "Just Married," on the back of Pam's car, and then tie strings to cups and tie those on the back of the car. Elizabeth filled them with soap so that when Pam touched them they would get her hands slippery! Everybody's little devil had popped out and it was crazy!

Then, as we are in the midst of trashing this car- there comes along the night guard parking police. UH-OH! He says" What's the occasion?" I say, "She's our best friend and we love her." To which he sas, "Hm nice way to show it! Here, (he hands me a parking ticket envelope) place this on her car, that'll make her feel real loved!" HAAAA!!!!! SWEEET SAUCE BOSS! just we needed!
Matthew placed it on the windshield just so nicely! Then after the car was covered in post-its, saran wrap, and chocolate, Matt squirted it down with this ginormous bottle of Palmolive lavender soap...if you've ever washed dishes at the BCM with this soap, you know that it sucks and like clumps up and won't wash off without some good scrubbing. So it was perfect!

WE then all run around here and there, Elizabeth, Megan, and Sarah Strickland walked down to the field where Pammie is happily playing a game of ultimate frisbee. They just did some checking in on her to see when she'd be coming back to see "Chrsity's car." Soon she said.So we all sketchily waited and watched. Creepers. Here she comes! Matt runs to get the people hanging out at BCM. Megan, Sarah, and I ran to hide behind some strangers jeep. She saw us...then she saw the car. Her reaction was odd. Haha, she like slowed down...she was on her phone, and she just looked so very not content! About this time, Christy pulls up in the truck, we run and jump in the tailgate. So we now have Christy and I don't know who in the front seat, and like 6 people in the back, we rode by and snapped pictures of Pam and the car. then we hid behind some bushes and again, being creepers, watched Pam from a small distance. She was still on her phone, and then she saw the parking violoation.....a few minutes later we hear sirens and see blue lights coming up this way and the entire group of us hiding behind the bushes darted and ran off. Hmm, so now we know who runs from the law! Ha! nah, I totally would too! But, Sarah and I realized they weren't coming for us, so we went to help Pam clean it up. Jason Elvington was helping her there too. We all got together and cleaned it up. Matt, sarah and I helped Pam wash the car at the Tiger Bubble Bath....again a soapy wet mess, but fun!!

The night ended on a couple rounds of Taco Bell, and watching the end of the frat and sorority dance off. hahaha! So yes. I love my friends!

7/28/09

Staff weekend was great. It was strange seeing a whole new set of faces filling up those chairs, and a little sad without the people who made last summer what it was. But I don't doubt that this summer will be amazing as well, just in a different way.

I've been rereading my journal from last summer. it's crazy to see the difference between what i wrote the first week and what i wrote the end of camp. i wrote this the last Wednesday of camp and i think it kind of sums up the summer perfectly (without being personally incriminating) so i wanted to type it here:

"This week has not been what i have expected. I know that this ministry is completely shaped by ups and downs but I really wanted to end this summer with a good week. Not that this week hasn't been a good week, but I just don't feel like I have a lot in common with these girls. Maybe Hannah was right when she talked earlier in the summer about always gravitating towards certain types of campers 

I can't beleive this summer is almost over. It halfway seems like we should just be starting week 2, and halfway seems like i've been here forever. But i love it. I think back through this summer and all the girls I've had a chance to get to know. All of these girls have come and gone. I wonder how they're all doing since they've been home. Have they stayed consistent in seeking Christ in their lives? Some of them I talk to, other I don't. Some I never expected to hear from and did. Others promised they would email me "every single day" and never did. Camp ministry is so weird. 

 I was talking to Royce last night on SWOMP about how I know over half this staff won't be back next summer. At the same time, I can't imagine camp without every single one of them. I want to think that I'll be back next summer, but I want to be open to other opportunities and other ways I can serve outside of Snowbird. 

 I'm thankful for the reconciliation I've seen this summer. Between friends on staff, even when it hasn't involved me. Between campers who bickered all week only to hug and make up and apologize to each other the last night of camp. I'm thankful for reconciliation within my small group. I hate that it took us all summer to finally address whatever may have been going on, but I'm trying to be constant in remembering that nothing happens unless YOU plan it and that you've taught all three of us lessons in what it means to be intentional with others. 

 I'm leaving here on Sunday morning with Suz. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Five more days here. I'm praying for energy to finish this race HARD. To not stop winding down, but to start running it harder than I have been. I want to make the most of the time I have left here with my campers, with the staff, and with my small group. I don't want to waste this summer. Have I wasted it so far?

I wish I could go back and do it all over again, having already learned the lessons I know now. But I know I'm already starting to feel burnt out, i'm sick, i'm tired, and I doubt I could handle more than another week or two of this as much as I wish i could."

Elizabeth's Hit List

http://lizzie8968.blogspot.com/2010/04/childhood-should-never-end.html

Elizabeth put me on her hitlist. Shoudl I be worried?