Unplugged?

I've been thinking about the crazy attachment that I have to my computer ever since mine died on Tuesday. I had about 6 panic attacks that day when I wanted to go look at things, or send and e-mail or whatever and it wasn't convenient for me to do so.

Well, I have to say that I kind of like this being "unplugged" thing. I'm not truly unplugged. My phone has just about anything that I could want or need on it, but the screen is itty bitty and it's a pain to type on, and the internet is way slower than on my computer so it doesn't quite compare.

My goal for this summer is to minimize the amount of time that I spend playing around on the computer. My phone will stay in my room during the work day. This way I won't be facebooking/twittering when I should be learning - and I'll avoid it getting run over by a tractor or ATV (4 wheeler for those southerners who fuss at me...) I'm also going to check my e-mail once an evening and try to do a blog post every other day or so. But other than that I am trying to stay off. I'm going to be out in nature. I figured that I should enjoy it and if I need something to stimulate my brain I'll read.

I have no clue if I'll be able to stick to this, but we'll see. :)

I'm still having problems fathoming the fact that all my new friends are leaving. I would give just about anything to have another year with the senior hort students. I'm kicking myself for not trying harder/being more obnoxious in the beginning of the semester where I was too afraid of rejection to stick my neck out there and try to make new friends. That's what I get for assuming that people don't want to get to know other people late in their college career. I'm dumb.

For now, I'm packing and heading up to Charlotte for the weekend to spend some time with Scott before I vanish for 3 months.

Staple It Together

The last week has been a hectic frenzy. Absolute insanity. Here's the Highlights.

Friday Night a bunch of people from Hort/Planet came over for dinner. I made spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, and brownies and it was all pretty good. We hung out for a little, but then half the people went home to go downtown. Myles, Brad, and Kirk stayed over and we had some fun. It was nice to just be around them and talk and not stress about things. We played Wii bowling and Drenga for a good amount of time. Kirk stayed on the couch, and we all got our butts up in the morning to sell plants at the SCBG plant sale.

The plant sale was rainy, nasty, and gross. However, we did sell a lot. As much as I love selling plants and talking to plant people, though, it was just not my cup of tea that morning. I was tired. I was cold. I was hungover. Not the most winningest of combinations. Then I had to crawl in the car and drive to Charlotte so that me and Scott could go see Meghan ride the next day. I almost fell asleep on the way up there and I had to drive through some really scary storms. I crashed really hard when I got to Scott's. I feel really bad because I was not a fun person to deal with. Really all I wanted was to hunker down in his arms and snooze, but it turned into me whining and bitching about anything and everything because it wasn't happening. I am an awesome girlfriend...

Sunday was pretty good. We drove to Laurinburg, NC to watch IDA Nationals. Meghan did awesome! It was great to see her even if it was only for an hour. That's true friendship right there. I'm not too sure I would drive 6 hours in one day just to see anyone else for about an hour. On the way home my GPS (Bessie as she's so affectionately called) got us lost so we ended up taking the longer way home. Ate Chinese on the way back and may have gotten a touch of food poisoning and came back the next morning to take my English final.

All my finals went okay. It's still up in the air if I'm going to get closer to a 4.0 or a 3.0 but we'll see when the grades start to roll in. My computer died on Tuesday. The motherboard completely fried so I've been runing around like a chicken with my head cut off because now in order to use a computer I have to pretty much be at school! Tuesday night after my spanish final I went over to Brad's with some more hort kids. I watched the Golden Girls for the first time ever and got some studying done.

Wednesday I didn't have a final until 7. I got a lot of things done in the morning and then I went hiking to study for Math a little. It was nice to go up to King's Creek. It may be my favorite place in upstate SC. I wish that I could have sat there all day. After a grueling exam, Heather and I picked up Brad and 2 other friends and went to blindhorse. It was a pretty good night. The dancing wasn't as good as it has been, but the boys were there and it gave us someone to talk to. I learned how to shag, and we tried to teach the boys how to dance a little. Some picked it up faster than others, but all we wanted was someone to come with us and try. Blindhorse was followed by a WaHo trip and a very late evening.

This morning it was really hard to get up. I had to go to Anderson to drop off my computer at FedEx and now I have to go home and pack up.

It's off to Scott's tomorrow night to spend the weekend with him. Up to CT on Monday and then NY the Monday afterwards. Craziness. Hopefully my computer will make a speedy return to me! I miss it already.

Blogging out of Boredom

Happy last day of classes. :) 

Right now I am absolutely blogging out of boredom. My classes are done, finals are coming up on Monday, and I am waiting for people to come over. 

Today I've been really productive thus far. I got up at 6:45 to go to school and move plants for PLANET's plant sale that's going on this weekend. Me, Erik, and Puckett got just about all of it done, so that means that we might not have to move things tomorrow morning. I did, however, get guilted into working the plant sale tomorrow morning. I was going to leave SC early to go surprise Scott, but that's not going to happen anymore. I don't mind - I just wasn't ready for it. 

I went to spanish class (which SUCKED) to hand in a paper and get a little bit of review. Depending on my final, I should be able to do a little extra credit to get my grade up to an A since I was crazy sick for the first test and got a 75 on it. That grade is kind of crashing my average. (with the C an 87) 

Afterwards I came home and began to work on my take home final for Hort 310. It's not incredibly complicated, just lengthy. Then it was some tidying, Walmart, and brownie making. I'm having people over tonight to work on the final, eat dinner, and maybe hang out/get a little rowdy afterwards. I hope that people don't bail because there aren't going to be a ton of people here. I think I have a pathological fear of not being good enough - or people using me - or people being nice to me out of sympathy. Bah. I just need to keep thinking that it's going to be fun. 

I also need to try to keep myself from being so anal retentive about this take home final that I e-mail my professor for the 4th time today asking him to check over all of the work I've done. Really? I would be so annoyed if I were a professor and I had students do that... 

PLANET SCD

I'm not sure where to even begin about this last weekend. Chronologically could work - maybe? The important point to bring out of this is that it was probably the best weekend of my life. It's not often that you are in a situation where you get to socialize and work with 800 other students who are all interested in the same things as you. 

Thursday morning we woke up around 4:30 to get to school at 5:30. Being the good teammate that I am, I made 2 batches of brownies for everyone for the trip up. We get there and chill waiting for Jeanne and Bob with the SUV's. Didn't get to sit in the cool car, but I can't really blame them. These guys are mostly seniors. We got to Atlanta, threw our stuff in the hotel rooms, and then headed to the workshops on the North Metro Tech campus. The sales workshop was REALLY boring. They just kind of talked at us and then let us go an hour and a half early. When I got out of that I snuck into the leadership workshop for the rest of the time with Amanda and Brad. That was a lot more interesting. At least there we got free t-shirts (Amanda and I got stuck with 2xl's because we're slow) and some people got hats. Lunch was very reminiscent of Tiger Band on-the-road lunch. Yay Chick-a-fila bags. I contemplated skipping the cost estimating workshop in favor of something more fun, but I was forced to go. Apparently it's our teams version of "paying your dues." 

Thursday night they had a reception for us. Then everyone but me got drunk. Let me just recap some events of the evening:

-Eat

-Inteview with "Snookie" leads to teammate #1 awkward "jersey shore" moment

-"I may be the oldest, but dammit I'm the most precious!" -Puckett

-Round 1 of balloons is stolen

-A trike race, old lady flirting, and round 2 of stolen balloons

-Helium sucking

-Smoke break where male teammates #2 and #3 meet "Snookie"

-Teamate #3 gets a "girlfriend"

... All of this = deleted camera footage...

Friday was an early morning for opening ceremonies, career day, and the cost estimation exam. The career day was eventful. We all accumulated far to much SWAG and then I had an interview with Villa&Sons in FL and PIKE Nurseries in the Atlanta/Charlotte area. They both went really well, my resume was strong, and I feel like I could potentially get a job at either company if I tried hard for it. I also talked to a nice man from Longwood Gardens about their graduate program. I'm potentially interested, but for the moment still leaning towards getting my MLA. Maybe I'm just trying to avoid living in the real world? 

That night was the Maintenance Cost Estimating exams. I took it (failed) but came out fast. Brad took it and did okay. I went to bed not long afterwards. 

Saturday was the full, intense day of competition. I didn't sleep Friday night at all because I had the jitters. I distinctly remember Amanda's alarm going off so she could go in the first car for the 8am events and laughing because I was still awake from the night before. We got to North Metro Tech and I went to the sales prep room. The girl before me didn't show, so even though I was there 45 minutes early to prep I had to jump in and give my presentation almost as soon as I got there. It was frustrating, and I didn't get my check or contract signed but I still did well considering. A 63.9/68 potential points is not too shabby especially since 32 points of the competition is getting your paperwork signed. Oh well, I'll get 'em next year! Then I watched the end of irrigation assembly, tree climbing, and paver installation. Then it was lunch (BBQ this time) and a quick re-organization before everyone scattered again. The interior plant ID event did not go well for me, but I didn't really expect it to. The whole afternoon ended with plant installation. 

After a long day of PLANET-ing we got to go back to the hotel and grab showers. Then we went to this wicked fancy, wicked awesome, seafood restaurant where we just enjoyed eating and talking with each other. 

Upon arrival at the hotel the fun began, and then people began to turn in soon after. We socialized with the UMass kids outside in the hall until we got fussed at, and then "Snookie" made an appearance and scared off a couple of people. Other's got tired. At some point I ended up making some not so perfect choices beverage wise. We met some kids from Minnesota, eh? I also had the pleasure of being hit on by a Mexican with corn rows and a pedophile mustache. Did Brad help me out? Of course not! I think it all evened out by the end of the night, though. I probably annoyed that poor boy the whole night. Whoops. I finally went to bed around 3:30am. 

Sunday was closing ceremonies. It wasn't really anything to write home about. There were a lot of scholarship recipients, and maybe I'll be one of them next year. I realized that I just want to be more involved with this event, and the workings of it next year. I've already started talking it up to kids (especially turf majors) to hopefully gather an awesome team for next year. 

After closing ceremonies we packed up the cars and went to lunch and then the botanical gardens in Atlanta. As we were walking around we realized how much this botanical garden was the equivalent of a zoo for us. The group I was with heard rumors of a variegated ginkgo, but never found it unfortunately. We played in the children's garden. We also got to go to the conservatory! There were little tropical birds, frogs, and more cool plants than you could look at at once. More than one of us complained about being dizzy by the time we got out of there. 

It wasp probably one of the best weekends of my life. I feel more assured now, that this is the industry for me. Industry employers don't totally hate me, I'm building a good resume, and I met some awesome people that I wish weren't graduating. I'm glad that I didn't chose SED over this, because then I would have just stayed in my box. Instead, I branched out and am definitely better for it. 

AHHHH!

House went up for sale today. 

Scared shitless to leave for PLANET tomorrow. 

Please save me. I need some sanity... 

"The House that Built Me"

The song below has been hitting country radio hard. It makes me kind of sniffle and tear up every time because for the first time in my life I'm having to leave the house that I love and know for the house my parents are building a couple of hundred miles away. To people that moved around a lot or are the products of divorced parents it doesn't seem to be a big thing, but I moved from Chicago to Connecticut when I was 2 and I've been a Long Island Sound girl ever since. What happens when I go home? I have 0 friends in MA. I guess I'll just have to kajole Scott into coming with me for major holidays? I can't bear the thought of 1 month during Christmas break with no friends. Ugh. 

On a happier/stressful note, the horticulture olympics are this weekend! We leave for Atlanta at 5:30 on Thursday morning. Thursday is workshop day. I'll be learning how to cost estimate and sell a landscape plan. I kind of sort of already learned how to do it over the semester? It'll be okay. Friday is opening ceremonies, the job fair, my cost estimation test, and if I'm lucky my sales presentation. I really hope that I get an early presentation time. That leaves interior plant ID test for Saturday afternoon. 

After all of this, we come back Sunday night and I have to get with my spanish partner for our oral interview Monday, go to chapter, yadda yadda...

Monday is an oral interview, Tuesday is a hort 310 exam, Wednesday night is a math test and then I can breathe. A field trip to metrolina in Charlotte, NC will wind down my week next week. I'm just waiting until then. 

I'm sorry for my fail at blogging lately. So much has happened that I haven't written about!

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. My TSH levels are no longer sky rocketing, but my dosage got upped on Monday because I'll be gone for the summer and the levels that show my Thyroid function (low is good) are through the roof so it's probably going to die soon. Yet, everyone I know apparently has this issue, so it's really not a big deal. What sucked was being misdiagnosed with mono and suffering the exhaustion for 4 months. 

Also, my lovely roommate ran a half marathon and I couldn't be more proud. Scott came down for the weekend and it was nice to see him. He makes my life so much more stable. Maybe that's just because I don't do work when he's around? Poor life choice right there. We went to Easter dinner with some of his friends and they were really nice. I love meeting KKPsi alumni, and I generally enjoy meeting Scott's friends. It was a good weekend. As usual, it was a bummer to see him leave. 

I can't believe how little time there is left in the semester... For the first time in college I'm not really stressed about my grades. I know that I pretty much have A's and B's across the board, so I can't do too much to mess them up at this point, right? 

The internship is rapidly approaching, and it's scary... 

That's all for now. I'll update after PLANET with pictures.