And to all, a good night.

I know this is a little late but..

Merry Christmas, everyone! ^_^

I had a wonderful day with my family, opening presents, cooking delicious hors d'oeuvres, decorating holiday cake pops, and just warming up by the fire in the family room. We also ended the night with a great cinematic experience with my dad's new speaker system!

And guess what? I get to do it all again tomorrow with my extended family! Oh, how I love the holidays.

I hope you all had an excellent and blessed Christmas as well! The only thing that could have made it better would have been a little winter wonderland in the scenery.. oh well, enjoy the holidays!

Celebrate good times, c'mon!

FINALS WEEK IS OVER.

Thank goodness. It's always the longest week of the semester, the most stressful, and I'm pretty sure everyone's least favorite. I didn't have too much to complain about though. Like I mentioned before, I only had three exams, two on Monday and one of Friday, so they were pretty spaced out, and I had a lot of time to study for all of them (doesn't mean that I actually wanted to though...). I also had three scheduled shifts for the Bakery, when I would normally only have two in a week. Now I just have to wait for grades to come in to see if I got in to the College of Engineering!

My favorite part of the week was when my "floor family" did Secret Santa. :] There's eight of us on our floor that go to meals with each other frequently, walk to classes  together, and just hang out in our spare time or when we're doing homework. So we decided it would be a fun idea to do a Secret Santa gift exchange this Christmas season. I drew both of my suitemates (since there were so few of us, we chose two names instead of one) so I was able to spend a little more money on their gifts since I was going to do something for them anyway. I ended up painting glass blocks with some of their favorite things, you know, like the ones you put a string of Christmas lights in? Julia got the old Batman comic logo and Carly had the cover art for Muse's album "Resistance." They loved them, and I had a lot of fun painting the blocks as well. I received some Beauty and the Beast figurines from my friend Rachel, because she knows Belle is my favorite Disney princess, and Carly got me a Detroit Red Wings Al the Octopus Pillowpet. My friends know my so well! :] We also exchanged our general gifts to everyone that night as well. Eric got my suitemates and I a water filter that we can hook up to the sink in our bathroom, Marianne gave me a little stuffed animal sushi, and Teagan made little Christmas bags filled with candy and hot cocoa mix. It was so thoughtful on all of their parts!

Floor family :] <3

Oh I love my floor family, and I'm definitely going to miss them over the next three weeks.

Good luck and goodnight.

I just wanted to wish everyone good luck on their finals tomorrow and throughout the week!

I think I studied for my two exams taking place tomorrow (both of which are my most difficult classes) for about 20 hours the past two days.. I'm very tired of looking at differential equations, eigenvectors, and Mohr's circles!

I also hope that everyone enjoyed the midnight scream, especially the freshman. :]

If you ever plan to motor west, travel my way, take the highway, that's the best.

I have been doing so much traveling away from campus in the past two weeks! I didn't even realize it until now, but I've been to three different states and four cities in that very short amount of time. I may have mentioned this earlier, but my boyfriend took me to the Straight No Chaser concert in Cleveland, OH for my Christmas present at the end of Thanksgiving break, so that was an entire day trip (five hours there, a two hour concert, and four hours back). It was well worth it though. :] Straight No Chaser is an all male a cappella group out of Indiana University, and they are just incredibly talented and great performers. Very similar to our local Spartan Dischords!

A week later, a group of my friends drove down to Indianapolis, IN for the B1G Championship game of Michigan State vs. Wisconsin. The loss was quite unfortunate, but the rest of the day was packed full of shopping, special events, food, and cheering. I knew I was going to have a wonderful time no matter what the outcome was because I went with a really awesome group of people, and I ended up seeing a ton of my friends around the city as well. It was really fun to scream "Go green!" on the streets and hear all of the "Go white!" responses. I hope we win the Legends division next year, because I will DEFINITELY be going to the championship game again! :D

We were the LAST fans to get a picture with the B1G Championship trophy before it was taken to Lucas Oil Stadium!

My group! <3

Jack and I, section 132, Row 16 :]

And then the closest place I've traveled to recently, but still far enough to call a road trip, was to Ann Arbor for the MSU vs. UMich hockey game this past Friday. I had never been to Yost, their ice arena before, but it definitely made me love Munn that much more. My friends and I were about four of twelve  Spartan fans in the whole city, but we had a great time doing all the cheers and singing the fight song when we scored. Unfortunately, we lost 4-3, even coming back from a 4-1 deficit, but it was overall a great game, and it gave our team the momentum to come back and win on home ice the next day!

Like I said, four Spartans in a sea of maize... 

I just absolutely love road trips! It's a great way to break up the monotony of of school and work, and I always have so much fun!

Holiday Dinner!

Tonight is Holiday Dinner night in every cafeteria on campus! It's from 4-7 in Wilson, so I'm headed there now and I can't wait to eat all of the delicious food they have planned out. I'll come back and blog about it afterward :p

Make sure you grab one of the holiday sugar cookies! That's what I've been doing at work for the past month :p

Enjoy!

----

Okay, so here's what the menu was:

• Tomato Tortellini Soup
• Grilled Ribeye Steak
• Golden Butterfly Shrimp
• Roasted Turkey
• Turkey Gravy
• Pecan Cranberry Wild Rice
• Squash Ravioli
• Baked Potato with Sour Cream and Chives
• Fresh Acorn Squash
• Steamed Broccoli Florets

Mmm mmm good! I had a little bit of the turkey with gravy, ribeye steak, baked potato, and broccoli. Not to mention the appetizers they served on the floor! There were mini wings, spring rolls, crab rangoon, mozzarella sticks, rolls, sauces and whipped butters, and desserts galore. So many types of food, I just HAD to try a little bit of each. :p

 I love theme dinners! So many students and local families come as well, because they know that the cafeterias serve good food for special occasions!

        

Walking in a winter wonderland.

You can't deny it: MSU's campus is probably the most beautiful after the first snowfall of the year. Granted, I love this campus 100% of the time, it's just that there's something about blankets of crystalized water covering trees, buildings, and sidewalks that really gets me. :] And after 48 hours of freezing rain, sleet, and hail, I think we deserved a little beauty.

This is the view from outside my window on the top floor of Wilson Hall. I love the way the snow lays on top of the individual branches of the pine trees in the South Complex courtyard. It makes me want to walk around and take pictures of everything before it melts or turns to slush. Too bad I have class..

Oh! I forgot about these photos too! Remember that random blizzard we got in the middle of November? My suitemate and I were trying to to catch the HUGE snowflakes on our tongues. :]

The snow didn't really stick then...

I got distracted from writing this blog, so I have new pictures to show! This is from my walk from Wilson to the Engineering late this morning. 

That last photo is my favorite from the day. It reminds me of why I love photography so much.

Also, people do some crazy things on the first snowfall.. Several of my friends went outside at night to build snowmen and throw snowballs at each other, but unfortunate me had to do homework and study all night long. :[ I think all of the people that went to play outside felt sorry for all of the others who stayed in, or at least the people featured in this online video blog from an MSU student..

Like I said, we do some crazy things. :p

And I'll keep wonderin', when will my life begin?

There's an upside and a downside to the end of regular season college football, or at least for me.

The downside: no more football. No more tailgating, no more sunburned (or windburned) faces and screaming at the top of our lungs for the Spartans to dominate the field. No more reveling over amazing game-winning and turning-point plays like "The Rocket" and "Little Giant." Football season is honestly one of my favorite times of the year. Ever since going to a Big Ten university where football is a major weekend event of the fall season, I've fallen in love with the sport. I love the atmosphere before, during, and after the games as well as the strategy and skill involved in beating the other teams, especially our rivals down the street (FOUR YEARS IN A ROW!) I've even started watching NFL games just because I've finally learned (almost) all the rules and regulations to the game. :]

The upside: I'M FINALLY DONE WITH MY JOB. I've probably mentioned this before, but another one of my glamourous jobs is working for the Police Department under the Special Events/Traffic division. Every home football game day I've worked from 2am until whenever the game starts allowing certain traffic to pass through my designated intersection and then helping an officer directing pedestrians safely across the street toward the stadium. I love that I get paid for this and the work isn't terribly grueling, but it completely messes up my sleep/homework/social schedule. My shift BEGINS at 2am, so in order to get an adequate amount of sleep I should go to bed before 10pm the night before. This is normally impossible due to my continuous work load and the fact that it is a Friday night on a college campus. Most of my homework is done on the internet or utilizes the computer in some shape or form so I can't do much when I'm sitting in a car in the middle of Wilson Road for ten or more hours with no power. Also, since I'm trying to rest the night before and the working all up until the game, I don't get to spend time with my friends or boyfriend on Friday nights nor do I get to tailgate with them Saturday mornings. And after my work and the game are finished for the weekend, I'm completely exhausted from lack of sleep and then it's time to start on homework for the weekend, so Saturday fun is out of the question as well. So now that the season is over, I can finally enjoy my weekends and maybe actually catch up on all the homework that's behind me..

And speaking of football, did I mention I'm going to the Big Ten Championship in Indy early December? My wonderful boyfriend is taking me there with a few of our friends, and we're in row 16 of the designated MSU student section. I'm so excited! GO GREEN! :D

Now I'm feelin' so fly like it's Quidditch.

This past weekend was, once again, my favorite of the year. Why, you may ask? Because it's the weekend of the QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP in NEW YORK CITY. It was my second year attending this event, and it was just as fantastic as the first.

The Michigan State University Spartan Spitfires traveled via bus with the University of Michigan Quidditch team to Randall's Island, New York to participate in the fifth annual Quidditch World Cup. This year, over 100 high school, collegiate, and community teams signed up. There were even teams out of country, from Canada and Finland! With about 25 people on each roster and local friends, family, and fans, there were well over 3000 people on the island that weekend! This is the most participation the IQA (International Quidditch Association) has seen in it's early age, and the numbers just keep on growing. A representative of Central Michigan University actually recently contacted me about starting a team in Mount Pleasant, so you can see just how popular this sport is becoming. :]

Back to the weekend though, our team was having a blast. We went 3-1 in pool play on Saturday, the first day of games, beating Villanova, Virginia Tech, and Stoneybrook, while losing to the University of Minnesota. There were a few unfortunate mishaps though. One of our best beaters collided head-on with a player on the Villanova team and suffered a grade 3 concussion during the third game, so he missed out on the final games of the weekend. The doctors said that our player sustained the worst injury since about 9 or 10 players had been rushed to the ER throughout the day. He's been doing much better since though, thank goodness. I can't wait to see him back on the Quidditch pitch!


Sunday began the single-game elimination rounds. MSU was seeded 12th overall after the first day's games , which is AWESOME considering it's out of 100 teams! We eat Marquette by a snitch catch then lost our next game to UCLA. Even though we lost, I think that game was my favorite. It was the hardest and most challenging game of the weekend, but I was proud of my team and how well we played despite the loss. Like I said, this is my favorite weekend of the year, because it's a wonderful way to bond with my teammates and become closer as a family. I love them all so much!

After our final game, we headed over to the stadium to watch the final games on the weekend, where the defending champions, Middlebury College, won the cup AGAIN for the fifth straight year in a row. Congratulations to them, but I'm hoping their reign will end sooner rather than later. ;] The only team to beat Middlebury in their entire quidditch career was this year when the University of Michigan quidditch team defeated them on a snitch catch in pool play. I'm so proud of Michigan, considering they're such a new team and this was their first year at the World Cup! I know, I know, you're thinking," WHY IS SHE CHEERING FOR MICHIGAN?!" It's because it's BTQ, or Big Ten Quidditch. Six of the twelve Big Ten universities have quidditch teams, whether as student organizations, or club sports, so we have kind of banded together to support each other when facing teams in the eastern, wester, and southern leagues. The University of Minnesota actually made it all the way to semi-finals, so proud of them, too!

Besides quidditch, our team did get to do a little sight-seeing! Friday night, a couple of us took the train into the city, and had dinner and went shopping in Times Square, and a few people got to go to Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty over the next couple of days as well. It is such a beautiful city, full of life and hustle and bustle. :] I can't wait to go back next year! QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP VI 2013!!!

PS. This last picture is of Alex Benepe, the current commissioner and one of the founders of Muggle Quidditch, and I at the tournament. He is just SO COOL. :D

This, right here, is my swag.

So there's this contest on Facebook to see which college hockey goalie can get the most votes for his mask. It's sponsored by the CCHA fan page, but you can vote on College Hockey, Inc.'s picture. If you go to "Photos" or just scroll down on the wall, comment on the picture that you want Drew Palmisano (Michigan State's starting goalie) to win! He's made it all the way down to quarter finals, but we want Palmisano to go for the win! Here's a description and photo of the two different masks:


"An all-CCHA quarterfinal between Scott Greenham's Alaska mask and Drew Palmisano's MSU mask. Greenham bases his mask on his personal motto, "Believe," and we'll let him take it from there: "I have the Humble Bumble on my right side walking through the mountains, and Yukon Cornelius wandering on the other side looking for the Humble Bumble. ... I then have the Misfit Toys castle from the same carto...on tucked in the upper left hand corner with foot prints from Santa and Rudolph leading away from the castle." Palmisano pays tribute to Sparty and the last MSU goalie to win a national title - Jeff Lerg - on his mask. Let us know in the comments which you prefer - we'll close the polls Tuesday at 2 pm ET and the winner advances to the next round."

So go vote for Palmisano! And tell all of your friends! It doesn't matter if you like hockey or not, it's all for supporting Michigan State University athletics! :D

Just from worrying if the wedding is on or off, a person can develop a cough.

It's that time of year again.. when the wind whips through all of the buildings on campus and the sky is constantly overcast.. in other words, my least favorite time of the year. :/ Don't get me wrong, I love Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, bonfires, the scent of pine and cookies in the oven, it's just the weather that always gets to me. I thrive in the sun and warm air, and the lack of it during half the year simply sucks.

It's also the easiest time of year to get sick! I feel like I may be developing a little bit of a cold, too. :[ College students just can't afford to get sick! I have a three exams over the next two weeks, two labs, a lot of work shifts, and I'll be traveling to New York next weekend for the Quidditch World Cup. I think I'm going to drink A LOT of orange juice over the next couple of days and make sure that I stay out of the yucky weather..

In case, you do get sick to the point of needing medical attention, Olin Health Center is conveniently RIGHT on campus in East Circle Drive up by Grand River. MSU students are allowed a courtesy prepaid three visit limit for simple services like obtaining a doctor's note and prescribing medicine for illness. They offer a variety of other services including flu and allergy immunization, drug abuse and health clinics, distribution of birth control and sex education, and just general health information. They even have transportation services via courtesy van or cab if the issue is that serious! But if Olin isn't the place you're looking for, there's Lansing Urgent Care and Sparrow Hospital in Lansing as well. You can check out all that information here.

So moral of the story.. don't get sick! Stay safe and health conscious and you won't have to worry about any of this. :] Happy November!