You only want it 'cause you're lonely.

Lizzi recommended this song in a past post of her's and I've since had it on repeat. (Also, it explains my title. As you can tell, I'm not clever enough to come up with my own titles sometimes most of the time.)

The weather has continued to be gorgeous.  I am definitely enjoying dressing in jeans, boots, and thick socks.  The things I could never do in Florida, essentially.  I've also worn fleece pajamas to bed recently.  My recent fever and cold sickness has made me hot no matter what I wear, though.  Not cool.  Literally.

I wish I could better recount all my adventures.  Alas, my mind is constantly racing and contemplating what my plans are for eating, sleeping, studying and having fun.  Curse the triangle of college for being scarily accurate.  Clearly blogging has fallen to a lower priority, which upsets me despite knowing it shouldn't.  I'm just finally living my life and it'd be impossible to constantly distill it down so others can read about it.  This same issue is true for Facebook, of course.  I swear, I'm a social media addict, and I'm too engrossed in it to quit cold turkey.  How do other people live their lives more privately?

These items were recent on-campus purchases.  All I wanted from the expansive poster sale was Walter White's sneering face (because Breaking Bad is the best show over although I still haven't seen the season finale oh my god what kind of a fan am I?)  and the three handcrafted rings were from a random jewelry seller.  Money well spent, friends.  Money well spent.

Other things I've done (in bullet points since I'm lazy and want to take a power nap ASAP):

• received mix CDs
• saw an advance screening of Won't Back Down
• went to the Walker Art Center
• got more packages from home
• read And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs because a guy in my English class lent it to me
• done homework/studied
• hung out with my roommates
• gotten to know awesome people better
• went to a rugby game

Alright, time to nap then do some Spanish.

Have a lovely weekend!

Days until my birthday: 11

Days until Fall Break: 26

Absorbed.

I know it's been a while and there's no way I can apologize.  I have been immersing myself in college, and as a result, ostensibly learning how to live life more removed from the Internet.  As much as I miss scrolling through Tumblr daily, I feel better when I don't.  I am more productive, even if that productivity just equates to making efforts to hang out with people and thus have a social life.

This set of photos are from my disposable camera I had developed and feature the Minnesota State Fair that friends and I went to one of the last days of Orientation.

Orientation was clearly just the beginning.  Now that classes have started (someone told me we are already 20% into the semester, which is nuts) I am habitually busy.  I get a secret joy from finding an individually study room in the library to tackle all the reading I'm doing for all my classes.  Unlike the majority of my friends, I haven't had a proper paper or test yet.  My first formal written assignment is due Tuesday, but is only 200 words summarizing one of Nietzsche's arguments in his essay On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense.  Even though the professor is going to grade it harshly -- so it better be good -- I'm not that worried.  I've come to the conclusion that confidence is half the battle.  Also, I won't be silly and will take advantage of the resources available for me to proof and critique my writing.

I love the people here.  Everyone I've met here has been awesome and genuine.  Yes, there are some jerks I've already heard stories about, I've just fortunately never had to interact with them.  Yes, sometimes I feel people in my art class are pretentious, I've just realized that's just what art does to people.  I haven't had an awful, mean-spirited experience and that is incredibly powerful.  Positivity is part of the battle, too.

I saw this on campus the other day.  

I have a new appreciation for the meme after my Visual Culture class.

I created this out of slips of paper for my work study job at the Career Development Center.

The slips were answers to questions posed to sophomores, hence the '15.

Classes consume my weekdays so I've loved getting off campus and exploring The Twin Cities on the weekends.  Last Friday I walked to a nearby boutique with my friend Lauren.  I bought two postcards to send to IRL friends (sorry Blogger Family...good thing I can always go back) and otherwise refrained from spending money.  I took pictures of a few things that would make good future purchases or were just plain funny.  Either way, I'll probably be back again.

We also perused the art supplies store, aptly titled Wet Paint, and again I had to restrain myself from making any purchases.  Once I have a better idea of the time I'll have for art projects (not to mention get paid), maybe I'll treat myself.  My birthday is coming up soon!  Less than a month!

We didn't go inside The Tea Garden, sadly.  

One of these days I will get their legendary bubble tea, though.

That was only my Friday early evening.  Saturday I caught a bus leaving campus to visit the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  I am incredibly happy I went.  No one in the group of friends I went with seemed as interested in it as I was.  And that's okay.  I snapped quite a few pictures with my iPhone because it's ultra convenient.  Sometimes I hate lugging around my DSLR.  The last picture below is a of an incredibly real painting.

The adventure didn't stop there.  Saturday evening, friends and I walked to a local movie theater and saw Beasts of the Southern Wild.  I thought it was fantastic!  If it's playing near you, I highly recommend it.  I can't wait for The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  Apparently it's not playing in Florida at all and I just had to laugh because it is playing in Minneapolis.  Yay!  I'm so excited!

Alright, my hands are freezing now.  I take this as a sign I should go eat dinner/get warm.

I hope everyone has been well!  My plan is to write again in a few days.  That's right, I have even more things to talk about.

Days until my birthday: 18
Days until Fall Break: 33

Welcome to college.

This past week and half has been sweetawesome -- and I don't use that word lightly.

Despite packing up my life into suitcases and moving to live a 1,000 miles away from home, I haven't felt homesick or out of place.  Just the opposite, actually.  I've already had a revelation that this is where I need to be.  Not just want, need.  I can cite the precise moment I felt this, too.  It was during a group discussion with my Scottish clan (which are led by older students, Orientation Leaders (OLs)) towards the latter end of Orientation week.  We had just all heard two speakers present about TB and cholera and we were tasked to synthesize what we'd heard and apply it to our common summer reading assignment, The Ghost Map.  I suppose it was the way in which people added to the conversation -- be it  intelligently, humorously, insightfully, or personally -- that made me realize this and made me react positively. For once in my life, I felt like my peers were operating on the same wavelength as me.  I felt awesome.  And I continue to feel awesome daily.

I immensely enjoyed decorating my dorm room.  My area is directly across from the huge window thus I can look out over the street from my bed.  If you're wondering where I got most of my bedding and supplies, the answer is Target.  I must admit it was pretty darn cool to shop at the original store in Minneapolis.  It has two floors and cart escalators.  I almost died of excitement.

We did various things both on and off campus for Orientation.  On campus, I went to the first home football game with my roommate, Emily.  My college won, but we were playing a really terrible nearby college and we're only division III so really that's not saying much.  Still, I'm glad I went.  I got to hear bagpipes!

I also went to a Karaoke night, meet with my Scottish clan, figured out my schedule, and learned to navigate the cafeteria.  Plus (though none of this was planned) I hung out with various new friends and roommates in my spacious room.  We even had a clearly intoxicated visitor who invited us to a party and we politely laughed it off/declined.  Another night we watched a comedy improv group which was pretty good and reminds me most of Who's Line Is It Anyway because they played mini games.

As for what we did beyond the campus, I volunteered at a abuse shelter in the Twin Cities.  They need tutors for the kids there and I'm thinking about becoming one sometime.  Maybe not this semester or next, but next year is still a viable option.

To kick off welcome week and end Orientation, there was a Rocky Horror Picture Show on the campus lawn.  I couldn't dress up well enough so I helped my friend Oliverdress up instead.  I contributed the sequin bow headband repurposed into a bowtie and several other female friends contributed the leggings and bandeau.  Emily and floor-mate Dan also did their best to get in the spirit of the event.    

  

My classes have been amazing yet inherently stressful.  Especially my Texts and Power course because it will be a lot of dense reading.  I don't mind delving into art and lit analysis for my other classes, though.  It is obviously a transition from what I used to and I have to make the necessary adjustments.  As a reminder of just how good my life is, I've gotten mail from Lizzi and Maggie!  Thank you again, lovelies.  I will be sending a response soon. 

This weekend has been surprisingly chill even though I've had to do homework.  Yesterday I went to Lake Calhoun and explored uptown Minneapolis with my friend Lauren.  It was a good break from the routine I'm starting to establish here at my new home. Plus it was the perfect excuse to bust out my camera which I otherwise haven't had much occasion to use.  

This is insane. I already feel like I've been college for months. What have you been up to, friends? 

Days until my birthday: 32

P.S. I'm sitting in the floor lounge across from my room as I write this and someone is shaving someone else's head.  If this isn't college, I'm not sure what is.  Ha ha, the RA is joining in now.

P.P.S. I almost fell asleep in the same lounge as I was studying the other day but then a bagpiper started playing right outside.  My college is the best college.