Pokemon Colosseum and partyyyy, big updates.

Hey, damn I haven't been on in a good while. Last week things got a little hectic. I thought I was going to have some major issues with insomnia but it turned out I just had a very bad stomach bug that was making it hard to sleep. I'm happy to say the wind has calmed way down, too, so no more annoying wind noise at all hours.

It's 4:25 pm, probably going to start making dinner when I finish writing this. Things have gotten better since I've last written to you. When my stomach problems improved I had an easier Pathways session on Thursday. The one that I'd gone to on Tuesday I was shaking nearly the entire time because of my upset stomach and I'm sure I appeared on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I sort of was, considering I had barely eaten anything in days nor had I slept in 48 hours. I'd talked to my mom on the phone and she told me to drink one of the smoothies from the surc to at least get something in my system then try to sleep. I had a pretty hard night of tossing and turning but I was actually INCREDIBLY thankful when I just got a few hours of sleep. I was so nervous on the third night of not sleeping that there was something actually wrong. So yes, Thursday ended up being a really good day.

This is Trent. On Thursday I decided to eat in the surc and after grabbing my food asked to sit with him. He was of course fine with it, and we started joking around and he actually made me laugh for the first time here in quite awhile. Like I haven't met many people with a sense of humor I can really get but he's pretty hilarious. His friend Bruce also walked up and we all talked for about a half hour or so. I was really happy to have met some new friends and we decided we'd start having lunch together more often. We actually had lunch together today and some other people sat down with us. Trent knows a lot of people because he's been going to school here for a few years. He's a history major and he's from South carolina.

Then Friday was VERY interesting... 

At lunch I sat with Daniel H. and met a few of his friends too. I ended up playing pokemon Colosseum with Daniel and his friend Tavis. Not gonna lie, my inner child was so excited I couldn't believe we were playing this. We had to walk all over the place to pick up the N64 and the game but I plan on hanging out with Tavis again. He was really fun to play retro video games with. I hope we can do that again. 

Also not that this is anything to brag about but I won alllll my battles. Woops! 

That night a guy from my economics class named Abe invited both me and Jessy (the girl I sit next to) to a party that was happening at his friends house. I'd given Abe by number so that he could get ahold of me about it. Originally I thought I was going to go with Jessy and her friend but I'm now happy I didn't because coordinating plans with them could have been really difficult. They didn't show up until 11:30. By then it was packed and I was pretty drunk on hard cidar. I byob, I can't stand beer or shots. 

Alright, not the most flattering picture of me, I'm aware.

This was a picture posted by this girl Emily that I met at the party, along with this other chill girl named Elizabeth. Me and Emily danced a LOT, ironically enough because I had told Abe earlier that I didn't dance at all. We were like the only ones dancing and other girls would jump in and out but we didn't really care. There were a bunch of people funneling in and it was getting so packed. 

Brendan actually showed up there at around 11 or so. I kind of closed mouth smiled and he smiled back. It only felt a little awkward having him there. It actually felt more awkward when Jessy showed up and I felt like her friend was giving me "looks." I was like, alrighty then that just sucked my fun a bit. Abe drove me home, which probably wasn't the greatest idea in the world... I think next time I'll just walk, my parents would absolutely kill me if they knew, even if my place is right down the road.

And then I went home this weekend! Had a really nice night with Katelynn on Saturday and even stopped at Samantha's that evening. Samantha and I had a pretty good chat, and I left to Katelynn's around 6:30 to go pick her up. She spent the night at my place and actually stuck around the next day until 12:30 when Al picked her up which is pretty unusual for us. She usually goes home first thing in the morning because when she's at other people's house any little noise wakes her up.

Unfortunately for her this time my Dad had the  TV on all night long (wasn't watching it of course) and it was blaring show tunes. She didn't get any sleep Saturday night but we still had a nice time hanging out, doing what we do. 

Sunday... SUPER BOWL Sunday. Like I really care about the superbowl. It's just like the Grammys or any other big television event that I don't watch, it's just noisy and I always end up walking out of the room if I try to watch it because I get bored easily. I was working on this atrocious "critique" paper that took my mom and I hours of hard work and determination. It was such a nightmare to write. Luckily I've got to peer review from one of the more intelligent students in my class and he chose the same article as me. Hopefully I can get enough inspiration from that to fine tune, extend and edit my essay. Also, note to self, the bibliography part is copied from the back of the coursepack.. That's what he told me today.. I have to add my MLA bibliography to my final draft which I think is due on Friday. 

I've got an economics quiz this Thursday that I'm going to start studying for tonight. I think I'm going to put together one of those weekly assignment sheets. I've been feeling pretty calm all day and don't feel intimidated by doing it, which is why I haven't done my goal sheets in a couple weeks. The social interaction has helped me a lot.

peace. 

What implications can you draw from staring....

Nope. I made it a point today not to feel hopeless about my classes and try not to get too frustrated if I don't fully understand the material. That's why I'm at school, to learn, make mistakes, etc. I just try to be really ahead of my game all the time, study extremely hard and try to get the best grades possible so it disappoints me when I don't quickly absorb the material.

I didn't study last Wednesday but I feel I should today. There's some important dates that I need to clarify. I will also write it on my sticky note and start setting goals accordingly. I didn't have my planner with me in class today so I had to write some important date/times on slips of paper in my binder. Never a good plan. You might think all of this is excessive. It's just necessary when you have to remember so many things in three relatively difficult classes. This is certainly the most difficult quarter I've ever taken, much harder than anything I encountered at CBC.



Important Dates:

Pre-Calc Test 1, Friday Oct. 5 

Accounting Test 1, Ch. 1, 2, 3, 5 (I'll figure out later chapters later) Oct 15. 10:00-12:40

Legal Exam 1, 10/24, covering ALL of chapters 1-10. T_T

All of these tests are going to be a huge challenge, and will require hours and hours of study. I've got to stay focused and oriented, and cannot lose faith when I don't understand something in class. It's so hard to get on top of things but it's the greatest satisfaction to me to actually get the material when I need to.

I cannot put my accounting homework off like I did today. I actually didn't get the assignment done and Burnadette and I could collaborate so our whole group wasn't able to work together. Natasha and I were sort of fumbling through 3-26 today because neither of us could figure out how to calculate certain costs. I am going to re-read that chapter tonight and try to figure out what I was unable to do today.

So yeah, a little stressed is an understatement.

I don't want you guys to think I'm miserable here or anything, actually I'm starting to get a lot more comfortable and I'm having more fun in my routines than ever before. I feel like in college I can really take all that goal setting and time management stuff that I learned from Jacob and PillaiCenter and apply it to my everyday life. I'm in complete control of how I spend my time here, and since it's up to me I'm going to spend my time as productively as I can. Because for me, going out and finding other things to do would be a waste of time.

Really the only thing that could pull me away from my routines, I've found, is some sort of love interest. Because of course I schedule friends into my time, no problem, just whenever she has time.. But when you're talking to someone in *that* manner their life sort of becomes your life and visa-versa, you become more intertwined in each other's whereabouts and are unable to have your own experience. That's why I felt so relieved a couple days ago after parting with Jason.

 Literally the sadness I felt was momentarily. I was shocked and sad to read the words, but the sadness dissolved so quickly. I thought I at least had minor feelings but I guess not. Maybe I just really liked his company. I will always have respect towards Jason and he came at the right time. I was feeling pretty lonely this summer, and he was SO good about texting me on a regular basis, our skype conversations could get pretty funny too. We didn't really click personality wise but it was fun to like eachother when I was lonely and sort of needed that gratification.

I've decided I will only post a status on facebook once every two days instead of one, now. Facebook can irritate me because I'm always feeling compelled to write some clever observation of something in my life from a day to day basis. I think that'll be better left to once every two days. Facebook is overrated and getting boring, anyway.

There's some football players outside yelling nonsense. They seem like the audience Red Baron was trying to reach when they designed what I just had for dinner, "Feasts for One".

Freezer pizza is a nutrition nightmare-- you've got trans fats, cholesterol, incredible amount of sodium and preservatives, the works... But damn, these things are actually pretty delicious. I originally bought one at Bargain Market on my first shopping trip. They had like 40 of them for $1.99 on a shelf so I figured why the Hell not, get some douchebag pizza. It was so good I bought it a second time when my parents took me to Safeway to stock up.

My phone's off. That sucks. But everything's good.

Oh, interesting little tidbits that could be absolutely nothing. There's a girl in my accounting class that a couple days ago I made solid eye contact with while standing in line to turn in an assignment (Monday). I looked away, then looked back and caught her staring at me a second time. I sort of grinned, she grinned slightly and it was my turn in line so I turned away.

 This girl sits behind me. At the end of class when Holtfelter took role a second time she said, "Last in line?" to me when I was standing there. I'm pretty sure her name had already been called. I said, "Ha, yup!" and sort of walked off. I don't know if she was trying to initiate conversation there. Today I ran a little experiment. When we turned in our assignments I walked to the same far side of the room that I did on Monday just to see if she'd do it again. I totally saw her staring at me, again.

I don't know what to make of this. She's really pretty, she's really tan, and has almost black hair. I haven't really made actual eye contact with her but I think we briefly talked on the first day. Again, could be nothing. Just random.


Another staring war happened today when I was walking back from law class. I recognized this really attractive Phillipeno guy that was a friend of Patrick's that I'd met last week. I met up with Patrick twice at his car, once when we hung out at his place and the second time that he brought me a birthday present (Very sweet of him, he got me headphones..). Both times I saw this guy but I don't know what his name is. Anyway, walking home from class today, I saw him sitting with another guy outside of Wendell (the building that's right across the street from mine). As I approached he definitely was looking at me. I was definitely looking at him back. He continued to talk to his friend. I averted by gaze but when I looked back we made eye contact a second time and I grinned with my mouth closed, he did the same back. As I walked by I wondered if I should have said something.


Good, those football players have stopped.

peace.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Hello everyone! Happy Birthday to Me!!

New picture of me in glasses, I actually wear them quite a bit in class in comparison to my life outside of school. I really enjoy going to school when I'm on top of things. I guess that's how today was. The fruits of my efforts this weekend paid off, I was able to pay attention in all three of my classes indiscriminately-- without being too confused or frantic because "SHIIIIIT I READ THE MATERIAL BUT I DON'T UNDERSTAND ANNNNYTHING...." That's sort of how it felt the second day of law class. Today was the third, things went MUCH better and I got my participation points FAIRLY-- by having solid answers. Boo-yah. I felt that was sort of a reward for the... probably eight hours of study I did this last weekend.

It cracks me up to think I was going to have some guitar lesson business. I plan to give Corey B. lessons, and whoever else happens to come to me about it, but I will not be advertising lessons anymore. Actually, I would take down those signs but since nobody has called I don't care. I assume they will take down the signs in a month or so anyhow. I've got too much work to do, and any free time I get here will be spent with friends once I find some. Eventually, these things will happen in time. I'm beginning acquaintances with some people. I should start briefly talking about them here to keep track of people I meet....

Natasha H., she sits next to me in Accounting 252. She was one of the first people I met because she came in a little late and was stuck sitting in the handicap desk next to mine (nothing against handicap people, it's just not the first desk people run for). She's really cool, laid back, we're all sort of helping eachother out in this collaborative learning situation... It's sort of bizarre, I've never been in a class like it.

The professor had us divide into groups on the first day, which is how I met Burnadette, this girl that sits next to me in my law class as well (well, starting today). She's really intelligent, prepared and laid back. She clearly reads the material and takes her studies seriously like I do so I decided she'd be a good person to be in a group with. She's got a really funny, dry sense of humor too. I'm pretty we're going to help eachother out this quarter. 

My accounting class is two hours long and the professor only partially lectures. He's following a different classroom setup called the collaborative learning approach where we basically get into groups and review the homework together over the material that we read in the book. This would seem questionable to a lot of students because it might seem like this is just a good way for a professor to slack off, but I actually think it's more like the State requires this particular course to be taught in this backwards fashion. 

When I went to CBC I took the equivalent accounting 102 course for a few days during Spring quarter (my last quarter) but ended up dropping it because I was feeling too lazy. But that managerial accounting class had the same format, the professor split us into groups and had us come up with team names. She could catch us off guard with questions so you'd have to be on top of your work all the time. Teams would get points and lose points for extra credit so there was an air of competition. She was like an Accounting Senora Schmick! 

Makes me think I actually got off easy. My accounting professor has been teaching for 20 years so he's probably not entirely adjusted to these methods. At times he'll almost apologize for the way he's teaching it, like today he said-- "This is a special class, if you take a class like this you get hands on learning and it's very important."  Like he's quoting some presentation that told him how he was supposed to teach the class. So in following this he really just breaks us into groups, we do worksheets, then discuss the problems in class. When he does lecture it's not bad, it makes sense but at times can get really redundant.

Four hours is a long time to pay attention to lectures, period. I walked back and forth twice today so my body is pretty exhausted on top of it. The business building seems soooo far away.

The guitar is becoming a weird second nature to me. I don't know if it's that I've improved to the point that it's that much more comfortable for long periods of time or that I've hit a wall and I'm no longer improving. No, I'd like to believe that if I continue to do these picking exercises and spend the amount of time practicing I'll continue to improve and not hit a wall.... The possibilities are endless really. What I AM saying is that I've hit a wall of knowing what I want to play. I wanted to upload phantom of the opera but it's still not clean/comfortable enough to upload to the internet. I'd still give that a few more weeks. Once I'm done with that I'm done with Iron Maiden on guitar, for GOOD. . . . well, until I learn some music from other artists.


Things sure have improved since my last birthday. I remember going over to Jessika B.'s house for the first time. This started the chain of sketchy scenarios with her throughout the next couple months. Anyway, long story short, ended up calling into work the next day because I was hungover and had a grand time with her almost certainly alcoholic, creep ass roommate. I will never.... again... I don't even know what I was thinking, seriously. Thank God I found the guitar, otherwise my self esteem might still be that low...

1 year 10 months!

That's how long it's been now since I've been in a official relationship! Can you believe it, that's nuts, almost two entire years now! It's okay, it's funny this last year I've gotten such a different perspective on the whole thing it doesn't bother me at all anymore. Actually, I've found I'm the most relaxed when I'm not really involved with guys at all. Jason and I are.... DONE. We pretty gracefully cut that off.

He first tried blowing me off. I asked him why we weren't talking and that the "no communication" was making me frustrated. I asked him what his deal was. He told me this wasn't the time to talk about it. No response from me. He told me he was no longer interested. I told him okay, I respect that, we're no longer dating. See you around my friend, nice talking to you. Goodbye.

THEN. He has the nerve to drunken text me that night. Ugh, so rude. Men need to learn some respect.

peace.