Finals and fun.

Woot! I have just completed my first layout session as a paginator. It was frustrating as crap, but I finally got everything adjusted just right and now I just have to wait for the last two articles to come in.

I also completed my first article with under 24 hours notice. It can take me days to get ahold of people for sources. Not that I'm a procrastinator, it's just that I seem to have terrible luck in getting people to call/email me back for interviews. This time I was lucky to get some readily available sources and was able to get a good story done in good time. Much to the relief of the new sports editor, Joey.

In other Journal news, we had our closing barbecue last night. I am now soooooo sore. There was a swing set, which my butt pretty much didn't fit in. I swung a lot anyway. I love swings... :) I discovered, much to my amusement, that I'm pretty much the only girl on the Journal squad who can consistenly catch and throw a football well. I guess nobody else had brothers...

We also played 'Silent Death,' a frisbee game invented by Marc, our opinion editor. There's basically two frisbees that you throw together. If the other person catches both of them, it's one point. If he/she only catches one, it's no points, and if they don't catch either of them, it's minus a point. Anyway, Marc is pretty much the frisbee ninja. We had a tournament, and I missed beating him by one whole point. He got all pretend-mad and sort of attacked me with the frisbee and broke it on me by accident. It was a joke though. He's little. He knows I could totally put him away if I wanted to... I have decided that I want to be a frisbee ninja when I grow up. :) Now I'm so sore... Silent Death is the bomb, though.

We also all got awards for stuff. Mine was "Newcomer of the Semester" award. Notables included "Most Likely To Show Up in Police Beat" (one of our photographers got arrested and was put in the paper), "Most Interesting Self-Inflicted Injury" (Sean accidentally ran himself over while driving... how does that even happen?!) and "Most Likely to Secretly Be A Cylon" (Most of the office crew devoutly watches Battlestar Gallactica).

It's a pity most of the Journal crew is leaving this year. Marc and Rachel and their baby, Joe, are headed to London where Marc's going to grad school at Oxford. Katie is transferring to BYU (notorious for girls looking for their MRS degree, which earned her the award "Most Likely To Catch A Frisbee Or A Husband With Her Teeth"). Sam, Angie and Mr. Christian are graduating this year and going off into the real world. I'm especially going to miss Angie. The place won't be the same without her.

Anyway... I borrowed Kristen's calculator for my math final this morning. She and I had studied oodles for it. She's a math whiz, so she helped me with fractional exponents, square roots, the Quadratic Formula... all those things we were supposed to know. The problem was that not a one of those things was on the test. Nice. So I failed it anyway. Darn. Obviously, I'm not really excited about that. But I'm resigned to it and have decided that if I'm going to fail something, I might as well fail it in a spectacular fashion, which I'm pretty sure I did.

I still gotta finish my portfolio for my journalism final tomorrow. That one should be simple. It's just the portfolio and an interview. I've got that downpat. I've also got to show up and sign my name on the roll for my Spanish final. Love that one. Thursday is my last final for which I actually need to study... then I'm going to sell my books back, take the money to the D.I., and buy clothing. Without holes. After which I will walk to the Main Street Park to hang out with Sam for a bit, then return home, finish packing and cleaning, and officially leave Manzanita behind forever.

I'm still annoyed that they're making us clean the apartment. I'm sure the wrecking crew is going to find it quite vexing that there will bit dirt among all the rubble that's left when they're done. I know they said they're going to be using the apartments for summer guests, but since they're tearing it down two whole days after graduation... Right. I'm going to watch with interest and obvious enjoyment as they tear this place down... :)

Sneezes, sandwiches, and bullrides.

I have fallen in love with Hogi Yogi. For real. I grabbed a sandwich on the way to see Kristen to borrow her calculator for my math final tomorrow, and I honestly think that's the best food I have eaten in a long time. This is a humongous compliment from me, because I hate food. 

Anyway... the moving out process is taking longer than I thought it would. Mostly because I keep getting sick and halting the process of more trips back and forth. Yesterday I was supposed to be finished, but I also had to do my share of cleaning for the apartment cleaning check. That took pretty much all day. By the time I was done, I'd been slapped with a sudden cold and had a headache the size of Texas from all the cleaning fumes. Ugh.

Anyway, I did get about half my stuff moved over to Angie's, finally.  We got the bed moved down into my room and I spent my first night there trying to thaw out after going to see PBR live in Cedar City. 

Who ever thought a professional anything would come here? But they did, and there were actually several local cowboys who rode. It was so cold... I love rodeos, though. It's half excitement and half cringing in sympathy for some poor cowboy being tossed around. The second cowboy out of the chute got his chest stomped on and had to be taken to the hospital. Another one got taken in because his arm got caught in the girth-rope and he couldn't get loose from the bull after he'd been bucked off. His shoulder was dislocated. Another one, the bull caught up with him after he'd bailed off and tossed him about five feet in the air. Fun stuff, rodeos.

Not much of a title...

So... finally, my room has been repainted, the old carpet is out. I'm not moved in yet. Complications are occurring with the dorm. Such as cleaning checks - the final ones - this weekend. When I wasn't supposed to be here, but was supposed to be moving out. And... food, of which I'm running slightly low on. And my computer, which needs a new power cord that isn't here yet.
Anyway... today's been good. Very good. :) On to English papers, a few more interviews, and tomorrow!

Oh boy...

I just discovered yesterday that I am supposed to be out of the dorms on the last day of Finals Week. AAAAHH! If that isn't happy... Anyway. Angie and Jason are taking Meghan to Disneyland for her birthday next weekend, so I can't start moving stuff in then. The solution? I must begin moving today, obviously. So... I'm packing up anything that I don't immediately need and I'll just live out of a suitcase for the next two weeks. 

Anyway... maybe I'm a little bit crazy, but really the only final exam I'm worried about is math. The rest of it I can totally handle. So I'm honestly not all that stressed about it. And, since I only have three finals during Finals Week (one of which is simply making a portfolio, which I'm already more than halfway finished with), I anticipate free time for the first time since last semester. 

We only have two more editions of the paper left to put out. Three, technically, since we also put out a summer paper, but still... I'm very glad there will be no paper during Finals Week, but I'll miss it at the same time. Right now what I crave is a good game of Rock Band... but I've got to get back to writing my articles. I'm on a deadline... :)

Huh.

As you can all see, I am beginning a blog. For some reason some people thought I didn't blog enough. :) As I tend to blog about all the drama in my life, I am going to crack down on that in this blog, and just talk about... I dunno. I'll think of something, I'm sure. Large events. There we go. Important happenings in my life. Therefore, you may not see much of this blog. :) Just kidding. Important things for today... 

Uhhh... FAFSA! I finally got the tax worksheet all handed in at the financial aid office, so my application can be processed and done in about a week, and I will receive my awards letter. I'm excited for that. Secondly, I finally registered for classes for next semester. I'll be taking photography, newswriting, English, Southern Utah flora (which I'm very excited about!) and CSIS (a computer class which I'm not so excited about).

Lovely, that. Anyway... Renovations in my room at Angie's are coming along nicely. The carpet's been pulled out and we'll be stripping the walls Saturday so we can repaint it. We're also putting in a sprinkler system Saturday and tilling so we can get the garden in. I'll get photos up of it as soon as I can. 

Until then, I have a math test to study for, and a zillion articles to write... so ciao!