I'm Alive!!

So, since it's been so long since I wrote, and today the Oscar nominations were announced, I thought I'd write a little post.

Since I got back to Phoenix, I have been so incredibly busy it's not even funny. Running on quite little sleep, working, going to school, and being an active member of a sorority has made me exhausted. I never really have any time to just sit and relax. To be honest, this week everything has definitely caught up with me, and it's only TUESDAY. I have had a very stressful and aggravating two days.

Other than the past week or so, I have been absolutely having the time of my life. Elizabeth moved out here a couple weeks ago, and that has been a ton of fun. I have introduced her to all of my Starbucks friends and everyone gets along and has a good time together. I have been doing a better job of making time for people, hence the lack of sleep. As long as I'm having fun, I think that I can handle this no-sleep business.

My classes so far are just okay. Nothing really that I'm too excited about, but nothing that I'm dreading. I'm hoping that I just havent had enough of the classes yet for it to be exciting. I joined a Sex, Love, and Romance in Mass Media class that I feel will be really interesting. My professor is a crazy old lady and I love her. The class will really play well into my major. Frankly, I'm surprised that it's not an FMS class. Anyways, I'm also taking a theater class. Monday's class was a little better, but I really have a hard time "acting" in front of people I don't know. I'm sure it will get better, because the games we play really are fun.

Okay, but down to business for reals. I really Really REALLY want to get back into this thing. Especially with the Oscars coming up. :) So, even though I said I'm really busy, I'm going to make a conscious effort to keep up. I am worried about the amount of movies I'll get to see. (I'm broke as a joke and, once again, busy) BUT I will do my best.

The End of 2011

Sorry it's been so long. Since school ended, I've just been working working working until I came home on December 22nd. It's been a great trip home. When I got to Morrissey, there were presents waiting for me. I missed them all so much, and it's going to be hard to go back to Phoenix and not be working there anymore. Going back to work there really felt like I never left, which was awesome. I've had so much fun there, but tomorrow is my last day at 10954. I don't know when I'll be back...maybe not until May. We'll see.

Other parts of my trip have been great as well. I was reunited with Tico, Erin came to visit, and I've actually had a car to drive thanks to Jordan. Plus I've had a movie night just like old times with Jay and Emily. We watched Perfume: A Story of a Murderer. Which was an extremely weird movie. But it was good. Christmas was good. I got new luggage, which was great.

Today is New Year's Eve. I've been thinking of a couple New Year's resolutions. Mostly I just want to be healthier. I want to start working out and eating better and drinking more water. Also I want to write more. I hope I can actually stick to these this year. I never do. haha.

I go back to Phoenix on Tuesday, school starts on Thursday. Kind of crazy that second semester is already starting again. I'm excited to get back into it though. Elizabeth goes out to Arizona like right after I get back. SO Exciting!!!

Semester is Officially Over!!

So... I was finally done with school on Thursday. I had to write 30 pages of my screenplay, then a six page paper, and I had two tests. But I got through it and I think I'm going to get all As except for Geology. Which I'm okay with. I think I did pretty well for my first real semester back at college, especially with rushing my sorority and stuff like that.

But mostly the point is that I have so. muCH. TIME. now. I can watch movies again. I can READ. and I can hang out with my friends. Very exciting.

With that, since school has been done, I have watched Unbreakable, Tootsie, Funny Girl, and The Descendants.  They were all just okay. In Unbreakable, Samuel L. Jackson made me extremely uncomfortable. And I couldn't figure out why he was so weird. Tootsie was so funny just because of how dated it is. Funny Girl was fun. After a while, I just skipped to the songs I knew...

The Descendants was quite disappointing. It was just really really long. And every time any real emotion was developing, they changed to a new scene. It was pretty funny at some parts, but mostly just boring. It was kind of impressive to see the Secret Life of the American Teenager girl not be so whiney and annoying. It will undoubtedly be nominated for oodles of Oscars. Not sure how I feel about that.

Thankful

So, things in my life have been completely awesome lately. Everything is just going really well, and I’ve never been happier in my whole life. It’s a great feeling. School, work, friends, and family… it’s all-fantastic. Since the other day was thanksgiving, I thought I would say why things are so awesome and how thankful I am that they are.

First, I am so happy that I got to see my parents this week. I haven’t seen my mom since the first week of August and my dad since September. It was so great to see them. I picked them up from the airport on Saturday night, and then we went out to eat and went up to Surprise for the night. Sunday we went shopping and saw In Time and then I had my GRL banquet. Tuesday and Wednesday we were out of town. We stopped in Sedona on the way to Monument Valley. It was fun. I forgot my camera, which I was really mad about. I am just really glad they came and I cant wait to see them again in December. J I wish that they didn’t have to leave.

Wednesday, Britton arrived in AZ. So exciting!! I am very happy he’s here and I can’t wait for Elizabeth to come also!

I am officially a sister of Gamma Rho Lambda. I love it so much! I have so much fun and I love all of my brothers and sisters. I am so excited that I actually did it and I can’t wait to really get going with stuff.

It’s hard to organize my thoughts, but really and truly, I am so happy. I am so grateful that I got the chance to come back out here and get my life back on track. And all the bullshit at the beginning of this move was totally worth it because now things could not be better.

AND in LESS THAN A MONTH I get to go home for Christmas. I cannot wait. I’m going to work at Morrissey a little bit and I can’t wait to see all of them J, and I am so excited to be able to just be home and relax. I can’t believe I haven’t been home since August. Yaaay!!

Busy Doesn't Even Begin to Cover it...

         The past month of my life has been absolutely crazy. It's hard to describe the amount of work that has gone in to my days. I feel like it's all I do, and now, of course, as soon as I finally have time to write about what's been going on with me, I can't remember it all. But basically, my "pledge" process is over!! and the last little bit of it was the WORST. But I've been getting to spend a lot of time with my sisters and brothers and have been loving that part of the whole thing. <3 BITCHES AND RHOS. These past two weeks have been racked with bullshit and me, as well as most of the others, wanting to quit. But, through all of the stress I was experiencing, I did really well and I feel a lot better about the whole thing now. I got all (well, most of) my stuff done and I was actually proud of the thing we had to turn in. But that was over last night, and then it's for REAL over on Saturday when I'm a real sister. Crazy how fast this semester has flown by.

In other way, way, way exciting news. ELIZABETH AND BRITTON ARE MOVING HERE!!! Britton applied for a job here in Tempe and he got it!! Congrats to him on the job but mostly I'm excited for him and Elizabeth to be moving here. He actually comes in a couple weeks right before Thanksgiving, and Elizabeth comes in the beginning of January. I can't wait to have roommates. Carl will really appreciate them, and I won't have to be so stressed out about how busy I am. We're all growing up so fast. Now, if a couple more people would move here, including all the people from Morrissey, I won't have anything in Illinois.

Umm... what else? I sprained my ankle on Monday walking down some stairs at my friends apartment. I don't really know what happened, except that me falling was so loud that people came out of their apartments to see what the hell was going on. I didn't really think it would be that big of a deal. That night my big came over and helped me take care of Carl and take him outside, but I figured it would be better overnight. WRONG. When I woke up on Tuesday morning, my ankle was in so much pain that I crawled to the bathroom and out to the living room. Carol came and took me to the doctor. He gave me crutches (which are incredibly painful. It's hard to decide which is worse sometimes-- walking or crutching). It's getting better and better, but I had to call off work today because it's just not plausible for me to stand and walk around for eight hours. First time I've called off since I started working at Starbucks. Anyways...

School has been going okay. I just had a rough couple weeks with like a million things being due. But one a positive note, I read my screenplay pages in class and everyone said that they were really good. :). It's been harder and harder to find the motivation to go to class. I missed class on Tuesday because of my ankle and most of them on Monday because I had to finish a paper. And one yesterday because of my ankle and getting things done for my sorority stuff. Boo. I'm going to really buckle down these last couple weeks of the semester. I really need to get Geology to count so I don't have to take a science again. I signed up for classes yesterday... I didn't get all the ones I wanted, but I'm taking a class on documentaries and an ethics class and also a multimedia writing class. Should be fun, I hope.

I have just been going going going. I took today to just do nothing, but that also just stresses me out because my apartment is a mess because the dumpster is too far away to walk to on my ankle. And also I feel like every time I take a break, school just comes crashing on me. But things should calm down now since the "pledge" process is over. Yayy. And my parents come in a week from saturday. Super excited for that.

Also, I saw In Time since the last time I wrote. GO. SEE. IT.

Ahh, Real Monsters!

Went on kind of a scary movie binge this weekend. Yesterday I went to see Paranormal Activity 3, and before that I watched John Carpenter's The Thing on my computer. (NOT the one in theaters.) Both really good. I wouldn't say that The Thing was scary, but entertaining for sure. Paranormal Activity, however: terrifying. I have to say that I don't know if I have seen a more suspenseful movie in my whole life. In fact, the entire franchise is built on suspense, and I think they've cornered the market. I don't know if my muscles relaxed the entire last hour of the movie. Or if my hands came down from my face. They had this camera that was set up on an oscillating fan, so it went back in forth between two rooms. It was set at the exact speed to drive you CRAZY but not make it excessive. That was genius in my opinion. In fact, waiting for that camera to rotate to the other room was practically painful. It was so much fun to watch, I couldn't believe it was over when it was. I wanted to keep watching. I'd say the scariest part was the Bloody Mary scene. Ho. Ly. Crap. One of the best things about this one compared to the others is that it actually had some comic relief. I know the first one attempted it with the banter between the couple, but this really was funny. It made it so much better, in my opinion. I will say, that while the ending was mind-blowingly surprising, I was disappointed. I think it ended in a really weird spot (obviously setting up another one come next October, but hey, I ain't mad). And it ended so suddenly, I felt like this was the climax of the movie and it got cut short. I don't know, maybe I'm just complaining because I wanted the movie to be longer. Who knows. The funny thing about this entire franchise is that after the movie, after I thought about it... not much happened, but I was terrified the whole time. Crazy how a movie can do that.
The other movie I watched, The Thing, was pretty good, too. I first became interested in it when we watched a clip of it in my screenwriting class. Then a guy in another film class was talking about how awesome it was. He was right. It's pretty freaking awesome. When it came out, it got slammed by critics. Which I can understand, it's a stupid horror movie. Cheesy and funny in some ways, but I like those kind. I usually like either really scary horror movies, or ones that don't take themselves too seriously. That was The Thing. I feel like it was meant to have that cheese factor. I loved it. The best/ most impressive thing about the movie is that it was made before all of the CGI bullshit, and it has some pretty great effects. I'm not saying they're completely realistic like it would be in a computer, but it's damn impressive knowing that they didn't have really any computers to make the thing transform. I'm going to put a video up, but be forewarned, IT IS GRAPHIC. So, if you don't like that stuff, don't watch.

Next Semester

YAAAY! The class schedule for next semester posted today (TWO whole days earlier than it was supposed to). I don't know about anyone else, but I love making my schedule. I'm glad I went to my advisor on Monday. She helped me out a lot. I'm basically done with my core requirements for my major. yipee. So I had four classes that I could basically pick whatever I wanted. Two had to be in my major, but same thing. Anyways, these are the classes I picked:

• FMS 300- Television and Cultural Studies
• FMS 440- Los Angeles: Movies and Culture
• FMS 394- Hollywood Musicals
• WST 313- Women and Sexuality
• THP 482- Theater for Social Change

Suuuuper excited for all of them pretty much. The LA teacher really sucks, I have him right now for my Race and Gender class. It's not so much that he sucks, he is just a prick. And I've heard great things about Theater for Social Change. Very exciting. School is actually going okay. I'm not doing so hot in my Geology class, but I emailed the TA and he said that not all hope is lost. So that's good. If I pass, I will be DONE with science and all Gen Eds. And that is just the best news ever. I guess I don't feel as far behind as I probably am. So that's nice. I also started filling out my study abroad application the other day (Rome, here I come!!!). Just thought I'd share all of this with everyone while I'm waiting around for my next class to start.