The World of Higher Education~a blog by Read

I love your blog Read! Omg your graphics are so cute hehe. xD c: I bet I have my old graphics somewhere too...xD

This is cute. I love your old graphics, I'm sure I have some old stuff as well when I was younger, but I didn't really make BV ones.

your classes sound fun c:
i like the mermaid rofl <3 c:

Your graphics are pretty cute! Great blog post!

~12.10.2014~

Oh darlins, have I got a story for you.

Right, so, my macro final yesterday went swimmingly, and my mom was on her way to pick me up and drive me home. Normally that's my dad's job but he's out of town for work and couldn't make it.

A word about my mother: She doesn't like driving long distances, and one of her worst fears is getting lost. So, of course, she gets lost. And her phone died. Go figure. 

So I spend a 40 minutes outside a Mexican restaurant where I last told her to try to get to because my dorm is so new it doesn't show up on GPS. Also it's freezing. Finally I can't take it anymore and duck into the neighboring McAlister's, and she calls me saying she's at a Walgreen's 15 minutes away where some kind soul charged her phone. At this point she's clearly panicking and has gotten four sets of conflicting directions from four different people, so I take pity and call a cab to take me there. However, there's a difference between Pike and Avenue, so after realizing there is no Walgreen's on this road, the Walgreen's person said "whoops yeah I told you the wrong street" so that's another 15 minutes.

Finally I found her and we managed to get back to my dorm to get all my stuff, but it was around 6:30 and the interstate was an absolute mess so we decided to just find a hotel that didn't involve I-40 and continue in the morning. I just got on my computer and found a chain hotel I was familiar with 5 minutes away.

Easily one of the nicest hotels I've ever been in. We pull into the little circle in front of the building and the valet comes up and says we could self park or valet park for $4 more, and I mean we're in my car ok so no you're not gonna valet park my baby. So he tells us to go through the gate and take "seven right turns" through the garage to get to the self park level. No big, right? Except my mom has had directions given to her right and left and we're at the point where everything is hysterical, which usually comes at around 1 a.m. but it was only 7:30. So we start counting.

There's only six right turns. The seventh would have put us straight through a concrete wall.

Then we had to drive around for a minute to find a parking space that wasn't labeled "compact"

Then Mom found that the hotel room had one of those big phone handsets that you can plug into your smartphone and at least I know what to get her for Christmas now.

We went to bed pretty early.

Then I drove us back this morning and now we're ok. But good grief that was a horrid experience. I really can't even write it all. It would take pages and pages. But enough about that.

While I was in the library studying for my last final, I see this.

Which, of course, happens to be one of my classes next semester. Uh oh.


Alright last thing cause I know this has been long. I've just opened the BVB Academic Center, which is basically just me offering to help whoever needs it with schoolwork and essays and finals and whatever cause I'm done and I just want to alleviate some of the stress of finals because believe me I know your pain.

Rock on beautiful people.

This is amazing and it must have been awful going around trying to find your mom.

Wow, it sounds like you had a pretty stressful day but great blog post!

Oh gosh sounds really stressful
sometimes I can't find my mom in Publix i can't imagine a city rofl

~12.17.2014~

GUYS
8 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS
YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Anyway. I got some awesome news yesterday!! As you may or may not know, Taylor Swift and Ked's (the shoe brand) hosted a Shake It Off dance-off competition recently where you submit a video of yourself dancing to the song and if you won, you got to go to a 1989 launch party. Here's the winning video: http://bravehearts.com/challenge .

Guys. That's my cousin's wife. Yes, seriously. 

As of the contest, I hadn't actually met her yet because they live about two hours away from my house and I was three hours in the opposite direction. My aunt shared it on Facebook and I promptly flipped out cause, I mean, that's really awesome. As it turns out, she and her husband (my cousin) are professional videographers and do stuff like film people's weddings, which is pretty similar to what I'd like to do.

So on Thanksgiving I finally met her and we got to talking about stuff related to the business, and she told me about a music video they're planning to shoot to Taylor's song "New Romantics" at a castle, yes an actual CASTLE nearby because they want to raise awareness for the historic venue and hopefully raise money to turn it into an art center.

"Here, give me your number and I'll let you know if we get the song license and you can help us film it"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH


So yesterday she texted me saying they got the license and are going to do the shoot the weekend after Christmas and do I still want to come help?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH


I'M SO FRIGGING EXCITED LIKE OH MY GOSH YES

...there's one problem, however. I haven't actually heard "New Romantics" yet, because I didn't get the Target Exclusive copy, just the regular one, and Taylor and her team are really cracking down on the song being posted, well, anywhere.

So if anyone knows where I can hear this thing, please let me know. I don't really want to have to buy another copy of the CD but I guess I will if I have to.

And today, more good news! I got the official notification of my place on the Dean's List at school! I mean I was pretty sure but now it's official. However, for some reason I can't see any of my final exam grades which is pretty frustrating.

Rock on beautiful people.

wHY IS YOUR LIFE SO GREAT READ WHY

same I can only afford the regular copy of 1989 

and hope you've gotten wonderful grades on your exams!

Awww that sounds fabulous Read!!!! <3 Your life sounds brilliantttt! (;

That sounds amazing omg!! I don't even own the 1989 CD only on my phone. But you are making me wanting to listen to that new song of hers, I guess you could say?!

OMG READ that's awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~1.6.2015~

First post of 2015 yeeahhh

Well...and this is kinda awkward, but unfortunately the castle I mentioned in my last post was bought by someone intending to make it their private residence so we couldn't do the video.     

Meh.

Anyway, I start classes again tomorrow. However this is gonna be the best semester I've had thus far schedule-wise, since I'll only have one class tomorrow (integrated accounting) and two Thursday (History and French) and nothing Friday. Whoop.

My work schedule will have to change to accommodate classes but that shouldn't be too big of a deal. I'll be working concessions at the basketball game tonight which is way more fun than the caf.

Well that's really all I've got for now. Rock on beautiful people <3

Sounds great!

~1.20.2015~

Well hey there.

Where to start. Classes have gone pretty well so far. Accounting is a bit tedious but for some reason I find the material fascinating. If the entertainment industry doesn't suit me I think I'll go into finance. 'Cept we played monopoly in class one day, but we didn't have physical money or property cards and had to keep track of everything we did on this huge spreadsheet. And we have our first test tomorrow. Ew. 

French is the same as last semester, so that's nice. History is decent...except there's this book we had to read, called "Peony in Love". Now, that's obviously a romance novel. I despise romance anything, especially books. However, I was pleasantly surprised when the girl died by page 50 and spent the rest of the book as a ghost. Much better. 

Also, my roommate moved out and went back home for the semester, so I have the whole room all to myself. It's wonderful. I can play whatever music I want as loud as I want, don't have to be quiet in the mornings when I leave for class, and get an extra set of furniture to use. So much me-time; I love it.

Work has put me in a bit of a tizzy though. Originally, my manager wanted me to work 10:30-8 Sundays and Saturdays. Well that just wouldn't do. I finally got it arranged to 10:30-8 Saturday and 5-9 Wednesday. Much better, but still all day Saturday, which isn't fun. Plus they put me on a new station that I had to figure out, and the warmers where I get the food out from smell disgusting. Chicken and green beans and rice and eggplant might smell nice separately, but when they're in a big warmer together for an hour or so it smells disgusting.

...anyway. Boring for now. Rock on beautiful people.

That sounds great!

lovely.
own room.
the smells of work, almost feel a part of it, well not the book for sure...

Awesome blog !
Your so lucky to have your own room in college xD

~1.30.2015~

I'M SO BORED.

I spend most of my time in my room and while it's wonderful. it's really not doing any favors for my asociality. Take yesterday for example; I didn't leave my suite until 5:15 pm for my evening class since my morning class was canceled, went to class, had dinner, and back within 2 hours. So what did I do yesterday? Ate, read, hung my whiteboard on the wall, and watched the first 7 episodes of Once Upon A Time. My mom's getting concerned for my sanity, but when I don't have to go anywhere, especially since I have food in my room, why leave? Plus it's cold outside. Work on Wednesdays and Saturdays is almost a relief, and if it weren't for church on Sundays I'd actually go mad since that's where all my friends are and I only get to see them once a week. So please. Kik me, ask.fm me, send me an English essay to proofread, or a math problem you're having trouble with, or something. That academic center is for me just as much as it is for you guys. I'm dying here.

But y'all didn't come here to listen to me talk about my non-existent social life.

This is gonna sound crazy, but I LOVE MY ACCOUNTING CLASS. You know that right-brain left-brain thing, where most people are either more logic and math and science-y or more creative and music and arts-y? I used to fall strongly on the creative side. Now I think I'm straddling the fence. I love numbers and music and logic and crafts and physics and writing. 

Wednesday we met in a computer lab to start filling out this massive Excel spreadsheet budget plan for an imaginary cookie selling business on campus. Now, I've always had Excel on my computer but I never saw it as anything other than a giant table with rows and columns to fill out. Therefore I got a crash course in formulas and linking cells and making sense of this program and it was actually fun.

History is fun, because it's just cool material. French is fun, because I have a professor who believes memory is linked to the emotions of fear, anger, or joy. And because he doesn't want to instill the first two, he just makes us laugh. It works. 

Oh, and I've also been 20 for 6 days now and no I don't feel any different. Last weekend was fun anyway. My family came to town for a few days. We saw Annie (the new movie version) (which was absolutely amazing by the way) and went to a hibachi grill restaurant, which are my favorite and we go every year for my birthday since it's pretty expensive. Plus I got like 3 servings of leftovers since everyone was going back home and couldn't keep theirs refrigerated for 4 hours in the car. Yes. Then they went to church with me on Sunday and were less embarrassing than I expected which was nice.

I also finally wrote a snippet of a new book I'm planning. I haven't given up on Where You Need to Go on Wattpad, but I swear as much as I've looked forward to this chapter it just refuses to be written. I'll get through it eventually. This new book, however, is gonna be amazing, I think. It won't be posted anywhere since I think I'll eventually be able to get it published, but it, and I, have a long way to go before then. It's YA dystopian, which is pretty popular right now so I think it'll have a shot.

Well that was long and rant-ish. Hmm, sorry. 

Rock on beautiful people.

This sounds awesome. It looks like you had a great birthday!

~2.15.2015~

Have you ever reached such a point where you literally point a mechanical pencil at a computer screen and threaten to smash it if it doesn't do what you want?

.....I have.

Backstory!!
My friend Alex is applying to be an RA (Resident Assistant) next year and she's made it to the final round of applications, which is where she makes a "creative space" and she has a final interview. So she decided she wanted to make a video parodying the theme song of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air about why she would make a great RA. And she really would, honestly. And she asks me, her friendly neighborhood Audio/Video major to help her out with the filming and editing and such.

So I'm thinking, ok, great, no big deal.

One hour editing the karaoke track of the song on Wednesday, two and a half hours of filming on Thursday (outside. in the freezing cold.), and an hour and a half more of filming Friday. Then, we start editing around about 3:30. I'm thinking, it's a 3 minute video, this shouldn't take more than 3 hours.

I didn't leave the building until 10:00.

You know when you stay up really late and you get to the point where everything is funny and you pretty much have no verbal filter and you're just so exhausted you just don't care?

Yeah that was us. Alone, in the media lab, for seven hours, yelling at a computer. It was horrible. Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. And I had to get to bed and go to work the next day.

SPEAKING OF WHICH

Right so yesterday Belmont hosted a high school show choir competition, which is really cool, except we had like 1000 extra people come to the cafeteria. I came in at 10:30 and was told all I had to do was make sure we didn't run out of wraps and sandwiches. Alright, easy enough. But it was madness. Both managers were there (they usually never come on Saturdays), the weekday chef in addition to the weekend chef, three shift supervisors, and double the staff. It was like Black Friday, but for a cafeteria. My manager opened the doors at 11:00 and we were absolutely swarmed with....

high schoolers.


Uh, no offense. But man, those kids can eat. I'm just glad I wasn't working on the grill or pizza line. They got slammed.

For the dinner shift I was put on the cash register (my personal favorite) with Antonio who worked the other register and is pretty much one of my favorite people ever. Now, when Belmont students come to eat, I just swipe their ID card, quick and easy. But these extra 1000 kids and their parents paid with cash or credit card, which takes a little longer and more stressful. And I can't tell you how many times I gave directions to the restroom or the Chick-fil-A just outside. I'm just glad it's over.

Hopefully this week should be much slower and more relaxed.

Rock on beautiful people.

enjoying that active life...

Wow that sounds like a crazy week. I'm sure you are happy that it's over and hopefully you can relax more this week.

ROFLLLLL!!!! YOU SHOULDVE BEEN LIKE, GUYS CALM DOWN OR I AM LEAVING YOU ON THESE MOUNTAINS OVER THERE OR I WILL JUST NOT FEED YOU!!! THANKS ABOUT THE HS REMARK XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD