Snow: -Please Uninsert Here-

I hate snow.

There, I've said it. And all of you that don't get snow and think it's such a blessing that I have it and that I shouldn't be complaining... well, obviously you don't get snow.

In theory, having snow is great. It's so pretty, fun to play in, and gives you those oh-so-welcomed 2 hour delays and snow days during grade school. Well once you hit life after high school graduation, snow is anything but great.

Life Rule #3
Snow is Satan.

Have you ever had a lot of snow during finals week? If not, let me just throw out there how stressful it is knowing that a snow storm is coming and not being sure if your finals the following day will be canceled. Our Monday morning 8am finals were canceled and moved to Saturday, luckily for me, my professor allowed us to come in at 10am (when the school opens on a 2 hour delay schedule, which is what we had) to take the final. To be honest, there was no way that I was staying Saturday. My best friend of the past 17 years graduated from college on Saturday, and I was not going to miss that. PS. Can I just say, holy crap, my best friend just graduated COLLEGE. her schooling career is over. what? when did we get so old?

You see, as Luke Danes says, "snow is just annoying wet stuff that falls from the sky". I couldn't agree more. It ruins plans, and it ruins days. You wouldn't like it much if your plans to go hang out with your boyfriend on your 7 month anniversary got ruined because the roads near his house were snow covered and it took you over a hour to scrape off all of the 4 inches of ice and snow from your car.

Now I don't mean to complain (oh who are we kidding, we all know how much I love to complain) but I just find snow very aggravating. It's a pain to shovel, it's a pain to drive in, I'm a bitter old woman now who has lost all of her youth and childhood and won't play in the snow anymore, it's cold, it's slippery (don't know the number of times I've fallen on my ass because of it), it sucks to scrape off your car, it's wet... It's just pretty much lost all of the magic for me.

I miss the days when I loved that it was snowing; when the lyrics, "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" were actually true. But the truth of the matter is that I'm now a 22 year old who has places to go and people to see and doesn't take kindly to precipitation getting in the way of that. Need I mention the horrible snow storm we got the weekend of my 20th birthday that caused us to lose power and ruined my birthday plans? And my birthday is in October - Pennsylvania isn't supposed to get snow storms in October.

To top it all off, I have had a cold for the past week (yes, during finals week). I've lost my voice and keep being awoken in the middle of the night by my inability to cease coughing. It's been rough. Winter sucks. But at least finals week is over, and I don't have all of that stress weighing down on me, too. I did well on all of my finals, thanks for asking. Let's just hope that my psycho art teacher doesn't give me a C in her class. I'm not sure how well I'll be able to handle having anything under a B on my transcript. (yes. i'm one of those people.)

So here's my warning to you now: BEWARE THE SNOW. It'll mess you up. Anyway, I hope you all are having or about to have a nice needed break from school and a happy holiday season.

Peace. Love. I Hate Snow.

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Insert School Interrupting Disease Here

That sounds like a knock knock joke, doesn't it?

knock knock.
who's there?
school interrupting disease.
school interrupting dis-
HA HA SUCKA YOU HAVE MONO!

Apparently it's also a joke interrupting disease. But I guess that would be part of the joke.

Have you ever missed mass amounts of school due to your immune system not doing a decent enough job and getting some kind of contagious disease that makes your whole body hurt, your temperature sky rocket, your stomach want to explode, your throat hurt because of all of the drainage, your body wanting to sleep all the time, and gives you an inability to drink water - the one thing you're supposed to do to get better? Oh, let's add in having your period on top of that. This, my friends, has been my past 2 and a half weeks.

The first week I wasn't really sure why I was constantly hurting. Headaches and sore muscles for days. I still went out and did things, like finishing my summer classes or hanging out with my boyfriend and his friend at the mall. Of course, I was slightly miserable and dying the whole time. But these were important things. That Tuesday was the last day I would get to see one of my best friends who is moving 12 hours away for college this year. Those are the things you can't miss, no matter how achy you're feeling. So I pretty much ignored the fact that there was something wrong with me until my fever was super noticeable, and I was sweating bullets.

The second week was when the dehydration hit. Once the dehydration happens, you're screwed. For three days straight, I was throwing up, feeling awful, and barely able to move. I wasn't sore anymore, but every time I tried to eat or drink, I just wanted to throw it all back up. It took me all last week to get back to a point where I could eat and be somewhat active again. And do you know how awful it is to see food, want food, love food, but every time you try to actually eat it, you want to vomit? Horrible, horrible punishment.

This week has been mostly just me dealing with crazy drainage and allergy problems mixed in with the need to sleep about 5 hours more a day than normal... I feel like a cat. I'll be doing fine and then all of a sudden I'm crazy tired and need a nap.

And what all of this and the blood work that I've had done (not to mention my clever knock knock joke) is alluding to is that I have mono. Which, you know, isn't the WORST thing that could happen to a person, but it's certainly down there. Besides the fact that I can't do any contact sports (let's be real. i don't do sports at all - contact or not. so not an issue) I have missed (or am in the process of missing) my first week of classes. On top of that, my blood work that I had taken THIS week (and I absolutely loathe needles) shows that my strain is still active, and therefore means I'm still contagious, and I just really want to kiss my boyfriend. So how long do I have to wait before it's ok to do that again? Because, that's quite possibly the worst part of this whole thing. Like come on, I have been single for 21 years of my life (all of my relationships collectively have lasted 11 months-ish), and I have to get mono NOW? I know, I know, first world problems, I should be more concerned with the DISEASE and missing school. But whatever.

Rule #11 About Jayy
She is terrified of needles. Hates them with a passion. But she has 6 piercings, and wants 3 more and a tattoo.

While I'm complaining (it's what I do best), I just want to throw out there that I have no idea how I even got mono in the first place. My boyfriend doesn't have it. I haven't been kissing anyone else. And I'm the type of person who won't share drinks or food or anything like that cuz it freaks me out. My whole life I would actually get made fun of for being a "germaphobe" because I wouldn't share drinks. It's not that I'm a germaphobe. Just the thought of it freaks me out. But when everyone in marching band started getting mono my junior year, I thought to myself, hey. at least I know I won't get it because I don't put my mouth on stuff that other people have. WHY HAS THIS LOGIC FAILED ME NOW?! Oh well, I guess we'll never know.

So now that I've sufficiently talked about myself (because it's another thing that I do best) let's throw back all that we've just learned to help you. Firstly, if you're showing any symptoms like I was, keep an eye on it. It's unlikely that it's mono, but you could just be super lucky like me. Secondly, if you do end up having mono, make sure you get in contact with your school and let them know. I'm pretty sure my mom just dialed the schools number and told them the problem until they connected her to someone who could help, because how does one even know who to inform in a situation like that? Keep in contact with your professors. Email them. Ask them to send you anything you missed, or what they suggest for staying caught up with class. Don't drop off the face of the planet just because you have some mystery disease (it's french! - gilmore girls quote of the day) School is important, so try to stay on top of it as best you can.

If you so happen to get it right at the end of summer and you miss move in day, because what are the odds, make sure your housing director knows about it, too. That way she won't call you up 2 days later asking if you're still planning on moving in, because you never checked in, and she's starting to fill in spots with people on the waiting list.

Most importantly, just get plenty of rest and drink plenty of fluids. It's so cliche, and I've heard it so many times these past 2 and a half weeks, but it's true. The sooner you're better, the sooner you can get back to doing things normally. Plus, no one likes to feel sick anyway.

One last thing. If you're IGNORING the fact that you're sick because you just really want to go hang out with your friends or your boyfriend or something like that, please make sure you're ok to drive. If you're slightly feverish and not all there, you might accidentally hit a recycling bin not even a mile away from your house and take off your mirror and scratch the side of your car. I know driving isn't necessarily college related, but it's still something you should definitely take seriously and into consideration when you're sick. Sometimes driving while being sick is just as bad as driving while under the influence.

Oh, and because you might be wondering. The picture is from when I went to the lake 3 or so weeks ago with part of CIRCLE team. It was a super fun day, and I totally miss Alyssa and wish she were coming back. Of course I miss Sam, too, but I'm seeing him in 4 days. Anyway, just some photographic proof of how awesome I am. We just hung out at the lake all day - laid on the beach, went swimming, and went kayaking. We went to Sonic for dinner, and then I drove Sam home and we watched Percy Jackson and it was just a nice day.

So have a lovely first week of classes if you're back this week. If not, have a lovely week anyway. I'll try to write more about other college-y things soon, seeing as college is actually starting now.

Peace. Love. Mono.

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Insert FAQ Here

How is your first semester of college going? What college are you going to? Where is that at? I bet you don't miss it here too much. What are you majoring in? What classes are you taking? Have you made any friends? How're you liking the dorms? What about the food?

SHUT UP!
Please.
And Thank You.

Once you graduate high school, you start to notice a pattern. It's like the only thing people suddenly know how to make small talk about is your post mandatory schooling life decisions. It doesn't matter if you go away to college, stay home for college, take a year off, go straight into the work force, or spend all of your time sitting on that musty old couch in the basement playing video games 24/7 with no plans for the foreseeable future. People will always want to know what you're doing with your life, and 9 times out of 10 it'll make you feel like shit. Oh, you're going to college? How are you making any money? Oh, you're just going to start working for the rest of your life? You should really consider continuing your education. It'll help you get a better job, and they'll be some of the best years of your life. It's really a lose lose situation.

But for some reason, if you are completely unfazed by the questions people ask or the way they ask them, you will shortly grow to resent the questions. The number of times that I have heard What college are you going to? or some similar mind-numbingly dull question is enough to make me want to bash my head through a wall. And of course it's never the same person asking it, so you basically end up having an automatic answer saved in the back of your mind that you have to deliver politely with sincerity and kindness. (even if all you want to do is shout go the fuck away and stop asking me about school)

So as a new comer to the wonderful ways of post secondary schooling, I thought I would heed you all a grave warning,

College Rule #11
Be prepared to get asked about school time and time again. You will get asked so much, that you will actually prefer being at school where at least the only thing people ask you there is what major are you or what dorm are you in (although, that get's pretty old pretty fast, too).

In other news, I haven't written in the past 2 weeks because I was on VAY-KAY visiting THE FAM. Down in the sunny south, I didn't have much time for blogging or coding or artwork or anything of the sort. The lovely picture up there you are viewing is from the family photoshoot. The picture was too long to fit everyone in there, so you're only seeing me and 2 of my cousins. Sucks to be you, baby sister. I'm also becoming more and more addicted to reality shows like The Bachelorette, Big Brother, Project Runway, etc etc. Never do anything ironically, or you'll end up watching TV shows obsessively that you once mocked, or saying things like Yolo, Totes, Probs or making duck faces.

Hope you're all having a lovely summer (or winter). Only a month left for me til I go back to college. So tell me, what are you majoring in? Where are you going to school? What year of schooling are you in? What is your living situation like? See, I'm just helping you get ready for the steady flow of questions that are sure to be headed your way. Don't believe me? Give it a couple of months and then let me know.

Peace. Love. The Third Degree.

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