Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A Month of Lists!

Tomorrow means that it is December.  I have decided to make December the month of lists! All of my posts will be list based.  I am obsessed with lists, therefore I am really looking forward to my month of lists.  To start off, I am going to share the "Good Things About December" list with you.

1. Christmas!!!!! - What's not to love?
2. Mom's Birthday - Go Mom!! Same day as Walt Disney
3. Christmas Trees - I love 'em, they are pretty and they light up and again, what's not to love?
4. Winter Break - Relaxation time
5. Secret Santa - I love the secret fun of secret santa
6. Christmas Shopping - Shopping for people and finding the perfect gift is so fun
7. Finals (they'll be a good thing when they're over!)
8. New Years! - Such a fun holiday
9. Setting up the Christmas Village with my Grandma - this is a Christmas tradition, it really gets me in the spirit
10. Christmas Carols - Anytime I can pretend my life is a musical is a good time for me
11. SNOW SNOW SNOW (hopefully!)
12. getting to wear my new winter coat - a big purchase for me, can't wait to rock it in the cold

Get ready for a month of lists!  Also, check out my "Good Things about October" list here.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Thanksgiving Break!

I had an amazing vacation.  It was so nice to see everyone and relax.  As you all know, I didn't have any outstanding homework to accomplish, so I spent all of my break maxin' and relaxing.  It was great.  I thought I would highlight for you some fun happenings in Wallingford over the break.

1. Pep Rally/Powderpuff - Wallingford is proud to boast the longest running powderpuff game in the US.  Powderpuff is a football game where the senior girls from my high  school, Mark T Sheehan play the senior girls from our cross-town rival high school, Lyman Hall.  During the game, the senior boys from both schools cheer for the girls and perform in a half-time show.  The game is a HUGE deal in my town. I had so much fun going to watch many of my senior friends have the time of their lives. Of course, Sheehan won this year!  It was also fun to see so many of my high school friends at the game.

2. Thanksgiving - One of my favorite holidays.  Thanksgiving in the Murray household starts with the Macy's Day Parade. My favorite part of the parade is seeing all of the Broadway acts and the Rockettes.  Then, at noon, we always listen to Alice's Restaurant.  This year, we listened to it in the car on the way to my Aunt Laurie's house.  Once we arrive at my aunt's, there is alot of football watching, singing, cooking, eating and game playing.  By the end, everyone was stuffed and tired from all the fun.

Cooking up a storm
Playing a new game my Aunt Laurie taught us

3. Black Friday - My mom, brother, aunt, and cousins and I all went out to search for some Black Friday deals.  We went to Kohl's and Macy's.  We don't get too crazy on Black Friday, we go out mainly to have fun and to hopefully save some money.  We had a so much fun the year.
Mom and Aunt Laurie playing around in line

Smiles in the check-out line at Kohl's
Aunt Laurie getting in the Christmas spirit

Mom joking with the mannequins 


 

4. Murray Family Outing to the Movies - We went on Saturday to the movies to see Hugo.  It was nice to go out with my family.  The movie was pretty good too.


Those were just some of the highlights from the break. I am so happy to be back at school.  As I write this, Saint Mike's is getting all Christmas-afied!  I love Christmas season! If only it would snow...

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Why I Feel Awesome Right Now!

I did something that I have never done before this weekend!  I finished all of my homework before the night before it was due!  I am usually more of a wait-til-the-last-second kind of gal, but I didn't want to do anything over Thanksgiving Break.  So, I worked really hard last week and weekend and these two last days at school, and I finished all of my assignments for next Monday and Tuesday!  This is super exciting because now I can completely relax over break and enjoy Thanksgiving.  Stay tuned: my next blog post is going to be all about how great my Thanksgiving was!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

My Registration Saga

My last post was about prepping for registration so I thought I would make this one about how it actually went.

I woke up on time and I was wide awake.  This is very rare. Usually, I wake up and it takes a while until I can be considered aware, but I think I was excited and nervous to register so I was on my game.  I took a shower.  For those of you following along at home, I know this wasn't in the initial game plan.  I felt I really needed to be refreshed before I registered and I woke up way too early so it made perfect sense.

When I got out of the shower, it was 6:20. I got dressed, braided my hair and took some deep breaths.  At 6:35, I realized that Michaela was not awake.  I went and knocked on her door. It turns out her alarm didn't go off properly.  Good thing we decided we would wake each other up in case of something like that!

Now it was time to get down to business.  Michaela, Ally and I sat out in the hallway and prepared for 7:00.  For me, this included sprinting up and down the hallway a couple of times...registration makes me crazy.

Ally had the seconds timer going so we would know right when 7:00 hit. I checked all of my classes and hit submit.  Apparently, my classes were extremely popular.  I only got into Philosophy and Lit Studies the first time around.  Also, my back-ups must have been extremely popular!  By the time that I could get back to try and register for them, they were full as well.

I was freaking out.

I couldn't find any classes that worked.  I was only 2 for 4.  I had class with my advisor later in the day so I decided I would talk to him then.  After class, I met with my advisor. (Side note about the awesomeness of my advisor: It was his wedding anniversary and he was still at school after class, after his office hours, helping out his advisees figure out their lives).

My advisor told me I could re-register on the next day to get into my back-ups.  He also helped me to petition into my psychology class.  I registered the next day and got into Anthropology!

I am currently officially registered into 3 classes.  I am going to be petitioning into my fourth and hopefully that will work itself out this week.

The moral of this story is to focus on the amazing support that Saint Michael's provides.  I thought I was dropping out of college (kidding...alittle) and my advisor totally calmed me down and helped me fix it.

When I get my fourth class all squared away, I will post my official schedule for next semester!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Prepping For Registration

  A bunch of the bloggers have been prepping for registration and telling their registration stories, and I thought I would add mine!  As freshmen, we register for the Fall Semester at Summer Registration Day.  This is a day that is set aside for freshmen to register and it involves a temporary advisor, and they walk you through the steps.  This Friday coming up will be the first time I register alone.  Of course, I have tons of support.  I have my academic advisor who helped me to make sure I was eligible for all of my classes.  My softball team held a team meeting regarding classes.  I really liked the team meeting because I got some great advice from upperclassmen who have already gone through what I am going through.  I also have all of my awesome friends who are, like me a little stressed about registering.  I actually register on the last day, on Friday.  Registration starts at 7 am because it is the most fair time, and people don't have classes or events that conflict with the time slot.  My plan of attack is this:

1. Set 10 alarms.  I do NOT want to over sleep through registration.
2. Wake up and get coffee
3. Relax!! Tell myself everything will work out
4. Set my schedule and at 7:02 hit submit and pray to the registration gods that I get my dream schedule
5. Rejoice because I got my dream schedule and everything worked out the way I wanted it to!
6. Laugh at myself for being so stressed
7. Go back to bed

  My dream schedule looks a little something like this:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday:
8:10-9:40  - Behavioral Neural Psychology
9:50- 10:50 - Philosophy 101 Honors
12:10-1:10 - Lit Studies: Road Trips

Tuesday, Thursday
1:10-2:40 - History of Modern Ireland

The good thing about being an Exploratory major is a dream schedule that looks like that.  I can basically take whatever classes I so choose as long as they fulfill an Liberal Studies Requirement.

That's all for now.  Hopefully my registration will go off as planned!