Home/End of January

Hey all! So, despite the weather that was trying to keep me from arriving at home I made it :D Yay!! This time with no incidents along the way, which is awesome. Anyways, so it is the last day of January, and I have very little to show for it...so I decided to show off some of the instagram pictures that I took this month (really, not very many, but that's the way it goes I suppose). Enjoy :P

Alright, I guess I should probably go do something useful :P I will have more updates as the week continue (maybe even a climbing update! It's been a while since I've had one of those...). Have a great week, my friends!

Love,

Sara :)

Musica Monday

So, I have been racking my brain for what I should use for this week's Musica Monday. I decided to go back to one of my older posts and put it into Pandora! I really must say that that is a really wonderful way to get new music, btw! For this week I have decided to use a band called Jem. I found them when I looked back into the group The Pierces. They actually sound quite similar (or so I'm told :P), but all I can really say is that I find her voice interesting and nice! I hope you enjoy her music as much as I have been as of late :D

This song also apparently appeared in the Sex & the City movie! Fun fact there :P
Have a good Monday! I only have 3 days left of my class this month!! Then it's time for another week long break, then back again for my last semester of school! :D
Love,
Sara :)

Sleeping Healthy

So, I realized that I haven't done a post about being healthy lately, it used to be I had a blog entirely for that, but seeing as I no longer have more than one blog (which could change in the future?? looking for opinions on that!) I suppose that I will have to just add some up here. Today's topic is going to be about something called sleep (radical, I know!) and the different theories surrounding it.
There is a hormone made in the brain called Melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that signals to the body when it is time to start preparing for sleep. In a recent study by the Journal of Applied Ergonomics, when you use a backlit digital table, such as a iPad or laptop computer, for two hours before bed your Melatonin level drops by an average of 23%. This can change depending how bright the light is and what you are doing on the tablet. Without getting into the scientific details of the study, pretty much when you use a bright screen for an extended period of time before you try to sleep, you are suppressing the hormone that tells your body that it is time to sleep, meaning you are going to be less likely to be able to sleep well. (Information originally found in FITNESS magazine and the link above) This can also be connected to excess use of cell phones before bed, which is not recommended. Using these types of screens doesn't allow your brain to settle down and start considering sleep because it is too busy doing other things; it is similar to trying to fall asleep when your roommate comes in a turns on the light after you are comfortably in bed and almost asleep: you wake up and takes a bit longer to fall back to sleep. This drop in Melatonin has also been linked to some cases of cancer, especially breast cancer in women, as well as heart attacks.
Another thing to consider about sleep is that a lack of sleep can lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular problems. It can also lead to an increase in potential for psychological issues and emotional distress. I haven't looked at a lot of research on this, supposedly women are more prone to these, but researchers aren't positive since the majority of studies have been performed on men. Yet, a study at Duke is putting this idea out there now, so perhaps there is something to it?
A lack of sleep has other consequences which I am sure many people have experienced, I know that I am slightly ashamed to say that I have. A lack of sleep can lead to a disruption in learning and attentiveness. While this may not be a big deal for weekends or for days spent at the house, but a disruption in learning can affect schoolwork for anyone in school as well as work performance in general. If you can't stay awake during school or work, your performance will inevitably decrease which isn't something that is very helpful or positive. A disruption in attentiveness can do the same things for school and work related issues, but it can also lead to other problems such as inattentive driving, or walking, or just being generally unaware of your surroundings.
Alright, I've gone through a bunch of negative things about lack of sleep, but I do think that they are important to know! On the other hand, 1-I'm almost done with this post and 2-I'm going to add a little positive flair at the end :D
I know that there is always more stuff to do during the day, and there just isn't enough time to get all the sleep that you may need, but if you get enough sleep and are productive during the day (the hard part....believe me I know) then you will be better off than not getting enough sleep! FITNESS magazine online provides a great story called "5 Steps to a Good Night's Sleep" which I think you should all read if you get the chance because it has some very good points!
All in all, get enough sleep, my friends, and life will just seem a lot better :D Let me know what you guys think about me having a fitness section for this blog or if I should create another blog entirely for just fitness ideas like this, I promise that I would listen to all the opinions and take my decision from there! :)
Also, I started trying out Tai Chi....it's interesting, more of a workout than one might think!
Happy Saturday!
Love,
Sara :)

Image from here

Fun Facts about Dracula (1931 film)

In continuation of my month of monsters in movies, today was a viewing of the 1931 film 'Dracula', staring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. I am again going to present you with some fun facts (I should add that these facts come from IMDb and my classmates/teachers). Fun facts are fun :D

-There was a Spanish version of this movie made at the same time as this one was being filmed. They used the same set, just filmed at night rather than during the day.
-The spiderwebs in Dracula's castle were made by shooting rubber cement from a rotary gun. (That would be so much fun!!)
-This is one of the few movies that was shot in order of how it is seen in the movie.
-There are two versions of this movie in English. Each has a different soundtrack; one originally from the 1930s and another more modern one with music by the Kronos Quartet (quite good I think).
-At no point in the film does Dracula sport fangs, one part of the myth and book that was left out.
-Upon his death in 1956, Bela Lugosi, who plays Dracula, was buried in his black silk cape that he wore in this film. He was Dracula even until the end of his life (talk about the role of his life
-It seemed that after this movie Lugosi almost believed himself to be Dracula (I may do a post on him later, his life was interesting concerning this movie).
-David Manners, who played John Harker, never saw the film after it came out, by his own choice.

I hope that you have enjoyed these fun facts! The purpose of making these is to just share with people (like I said they are from other places online, mainly IMDb, so don't cite me) because I enjoy them so much!
Happy Friday!! Have a good weekend, my friends!
Love,
Sara :)

Magic of Reading

I create this post as I am just over half-way through the book Dracula by Bram Stoker. It won't be very long, but I wanted to get this down. For the past several years, pretty much since I entered high school I haven't had a lot of free time to sit down and read a book for the fun of it. When I was little, I used to lose myself in books and could spend many hours reading without a hitch if I found the book interesting. This past month (though the class is not yet over) with my class, Monsters: Myths & Movies, has really brought back to me this love for reading and for getting lost in a book and trying to understand the characters! Not only that but finding a magic in the books in the way that they can take you to another world for a while, or simply back in time to the victorian age or medieval times, or across the globe to Egypt or Transylvania (can you tell what I'm reading now? :P). Welcome back into my life, reading for the fun of it! I'm sure starting next semester and after graduation that we will be seeing much more of each other :D
Have a good night, my friends!
Love,
Sara :)

Fun Facts about Altered States

We watched the movie 'Altered States' after class on Friday and in preparation for a film discussion on Monday. I thought that I would share a few fun facts about this rendition of the Jekyll and Hyde myth.

-The actual director (Ken Russell) used was the 27th choice as a director. In essence, no one really wanted to make this movie.
-It was also the first American movie directed by British director Ken Russell.
-Members of the cast and crew of this movie tried the isolation tank, where our main character experiences his hallucinations. William Hurt actually hallucinated while Blair Brown found it very peaceful.
-During the hallucination moments in the film, several of the 'hell' scenes were taken from the 1935 drama 'Dante's Inferno'.

Alright, that's about all that I have for now, I'm not feeling too philosophical right now. I guess more artsy...check out my deviantART page if you want! Here! Yea.....so enjoy!
Love,
Sara :)

Musica Monday

For today's Musica Monday, I'm going to go back in time to 2002 (ok, it's not that far behind us, but i mean 10 years still!) to look at an old movie. The movie is Spirit: Stallion of the Cimerron, to be exact (oh, and SPOILER ALERT, for those of you who haven't seen the movie yet). In 2002, Bryan Adams and Hans Zimmer created the soundtrack for this moving animated film about a wild horse finding his way home in the old west. This soundtrack has become one of my favorite movie soundtracks and I believe that it is very well put together. I enjoy the songs sung by Bryan Adams as they fit the movie very well, they are also very pretty and beautiful and nice to listen to. I'm going to post two songs from this soundtrack today, one is called 'Here I Am' and the second is 'Get Off Of My Back'. These two are my favorite on the CD, and for the parts of the movie they are in, they are quite appropriate.

'Here I Am' is about the beginning of life and when you realize who you are and where you are supposed to be in the world. It is played both at the beginning and at the end of the movie, when the horse finds his way home. It is a song about finding yourself and accepting who you are and showing the world...quiet like.

'Get Off Of My Back' in the context of the movie means quite literally get off of my back. In this scene, the stallion is literally trying to get people to stop riding him. But in a more philosophical way, I suppose it could be meaning more towards letting a person do what they want, don't try and change anyone or anything about them because they are who they are for a reason.

I would also highly recommend watching this movie if you haven't when you get the chance! I did put up the video that included the part of the movie in hopes of catching your attention to watching the movie itself! It's really quite good! :)

I guess I am in a more philosophical mood right now, I mean I have to read some of Dracula later. Plus I did write a paper this weekend about the philosophical connections between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and several modern day renditions in television and comics. There are surprisingly quite a few actually! I'll talk a bit about that tomorrow I think...maybe, I'm not sure yet. If you haven't figured it out, except for Musica Mondays, I kinda post when I have something to post about and when I get the chance! I'm not very good at keeping up with this whole daily posting thing, but as long as I get a few in every week, that's about my goal. Alright, sorry about the longer post today, but I kinda was in a rambling mood. Plus it's like -9 degrees outside right now, not counting windchill and the fact that I'm up on a hill, so it's like -30-ish? I'm not sure, but whatever it is, it's cold!
Happy Monday!
Love,
Sara :)

Fun Facts about Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931 film)

We watched the 1931 film, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in class yesterday. Any movie has it's random fun facts that go along with the making of it. It is especially interesting after you read the book itself and then watch the movie to see the differences. I would highly suggest doing this!!

-The man who played Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde was the third person who was considered for the part, and was picked because the director thought that he could play both the good Doctor and the evil Hyde.
-Another part of this character was the makeup that was used to make him into Hyde very nearly damaged the actor's face.
-The characters of Murial Carew and her father (the fiancé and father of Dr. Jekyll) were taken not from the novel, for they were not in the novel, but from the broadway musical.
-Edgar Norton, who played Poole, the butler, also played Poole on stage starting in 1898.
-In 1934, the Haze Code was implemented which was an act to get rid of any scene in movie that were considered risky. This is the reason why the character of Ivy, played by Miriam Hopkins, was not nominated for an Oscar because most of her scenes were cut after this.
-This was also the first horror movie to win an Academy Award.

Just a few interesting things to think on about movies :) what are some fun fact you have?
Love,
Sara :)

Robert Louis Stevenson

Rober Louis Stevenson, born in 1850 in Edinburgh. He lived what he called a "life of adventure", suffering from lung trouble when he was little and spent most of his childhood sheltered away with his upper-middle-class family. He married Mrs. Fanny Osbourne in 1880, she was 10 years older than him (guess age didn't matter), and it was then that he became obsessed with his work and tried to find a cure of his illness. This search took him all over the world, during this time he wrote many travel essays which were widely published.
In 1883, he published his first full-length fiction novel, Treasure Island. He had published short fiction stories before hand, but it was this first novel that brought him great fame, and to this day Treasure Island remains a popular and classic book for readers of all ages and has been made into many movies. In 1886, he published his second novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which we read in my class for this week. I really enjoy both of these books, and they are quite different!
He also published Kidnapped in 1886 and The Master of Ballantrae in 1889, both Scottish romances.
His death is one thing that really interests me, especially since I have just finished The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I use the words of Vladimir Nabokov, which come from the introductory essay at the beginning of the Signet Classics version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Copyright 1980) because I can come up with no better way of saying it. He died in 1894 in Samoa: "He went down to te cellar to fetch a bottle of his favorite burgundy, uncorked it in the kitchen, and suddenly cried out to his wife: what's the matter with me, what is this strangeness, has my face changed? - and fell on the floor. A blood vessel had burst in his brain and it was all over in a couple of hours." (p 44-45)
I leave you with that to dwell on :P
Happy Hump Day, my friends! I think I will be heading out to dinner tonight, so there may be some pictures from that up later, so be warned :P a combination of a date night and a girls' night out...
Love,
Sara :)

Musica Monday

When I was 5 years old, my mother presented me with a choice. I could play piano or pick a different instrument. I had a friend at school who played violin, so I told my mom that I wanted to learn the violin. Neither her nor my dad were particularly excited about having a screechy violin playing in the house but they obliged and I started violin lessons. I continued lessons throughout high school and didn't stop until I got to college, now I play violin during the summer in pit orchestra and for fun! The artist whom I chose for this week's Musica Monday is a violinist herself. Her name is Lindsey Stirling. She is a performance violinist who writes some of her own songs and creates medleys of popular video games and movies. The two songs/videos I picked from her are the 'Phantom of The Opera' and 'Shadows'. Both videos are amazing and fun, and the music is just as wonderful! I hope you enjoy!

There are many more of her songs that I would suggest, so get out there and check them out! Happy Monday, friends :D

Love,

Sara :)

The Start of a New Week

It's Sunday. Finally! It has been one hell of a long week! This class I am taking, though fun, is quite a lot of work, I have spent this weekend working on that paper and only got a full rough draft done this morning (NOT good!). But I did go out Friday night with a few friends for a birthday party. We were up in Minneapolis and went to a bar called Williams where we met up with some friends of friends and had a few drinks and a lot of fun! Calling it a girl's night out.

The above picture is Andi, me, and the birthday girl Carly :)

It's also quite dry outside, so make sure to use lotion! :P Yes, this is me giving advice again!

Well, I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend!! :D And look forward to a good week :) In my class we will be moving on to the tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde this week! So, be prepared for that change as well :P

Love,

Sara :)

The Life of Mary Shelley

Most famous for writing the classic book, 'Frankenstein', Mary Shelley lead a life that could be referred to as one that should be a novel itself! She was born August 30, 1797 to William Godwin, a revolutionary writer, and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, a feminist. Her mother September 10 from postpartum hemorrhage, being the first of many deaths in Mary's life. Her father remarried and when times got tough for his publishing business he was forced to send Mary to family friends to live in Scotland. In 1812, while living with the family friends she first met Percy Shelley. At this time, he was with his wife, Harriet Westbrook. After they met they fell deeply in love, so much so that in 1814, when Mary was 17 years old, they eloped to France and Switzerland. When they return Harriet gives birth to her second child, Charles. In 1815, Mary gives birth to her first child, a premature female. This was the second death in her life of someone very close to her related to childbirth. By 1816, Mary gave birth to her second child, a son named William. By their second anniversary, Mary had given birth twice and had been pregnant twice.
It was during this time that Mary and Percy Shelley traveled to meet up with a Lord Byron and then end up around a campfire discussing ghost stories. They came up with a contest to see who could come up with the best ghost story. It is here that Mary Shelley first conceives the idea of Frankenstein's Monster. She came up with Frankenstein's monster from a dream she had of a large dark figure hovering over her in bed, a famous scene from her book. Naturally, she had the best ghost story. Her husband and Lord Byron both encouraged Shelley to expand her book and create a full book out of it. But she complied and she completed a transcription of Frankenstein on April 17th, 1817. Before finishing, Mary and Percy moved back to England in 1816. As a result Mary's half-sister, Fanny Imlay commits suicide and the body of Harriet Shelley, Percy's sister, are found drowned with her unborn child.
When Mary Shelley completed her transcription of Frankenstein, her and Percy tried to get it published but were rejected twice until being accepted by Lackington, Allen & Co, (Publishers). Later that year, Mary gave birth to her second daughter, Clara, born September 2, 1817. She died September 24, 1818. In 1818, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published anonymously. In 1818, the small family leaves England and moves to Italy, where Clara dies. In 1819, Mary's one remaining son, William dies. Later on that year she gave birth to her one and only child that would end up surviving, Percy Florence Shelley.
In 1822, Mary Shelley had two more big losses in her life. The first was a miscarriage on June 16 that almost cost Mary her life. Then on July 8, her husband, Percy, went out sailing with a friend and never came back. A few days later their decomposed bodies washed up on shore. Even worse, at his funeral, the body was placed on a pyre and set on fire, but someone run up and stole his heart. It is rumored that his heart is still on display somewhere (nasty, right?!).
The rest of Mary Shelley's life was so normal and uneventful, if might seem like it belongs to another person. She kept writing throughout her life, though none of her later books were nearly as widely read as Frankenstein. She lived until she was 54 years old, and died on February 1, 1851.

That was what I learned in class about Mary Shelley. She really had a quite sad life in my opinion, much like that of her characters in Frankenstein, which is filled with symbolism of childbirth and pregnancy being difficult and detrimental. One big example being Frankenstein himself bringing a monster into being and then abandoning it because it didn't turn out to be what he expected and in turn the monster ravaged his family.
What have you guys been reading lately? Who wrote it? What do you know about them? You might be surprised!
Love,
Sara :)

Musica Monday

In light of the fact that I have been listening to acoustic music as of late just as good background for reading, I am turning to a song that I found several years ago when the movie "Prince Caspian" came out. I was actually having a discussion about the Chronicles of Narnia with someone the other day, and I also thought of this song, so I guess you could say that it has been on my mind as of late :P The song is called "The Call" by Regina Spektor. I really do enjoy her music, and this is a song that I believe emulates a lot about the entire Narnia series in a sense. I'm not going to elaborate much on that right now, maybe later, but for now I will put up two separate videos, one that has the lyrics (I could not find an actual music video that she made concerning this song) and one that is acoustic with no words at all.

This first one is good to listen to when looking for the original song and how Regina Spektor originally sung it. It is a very pretty song, with sad lyrics. I still find it catchy none the less!

This second one is the version that I find just as pretty, but that I listen to more for the music. I found this video by chance and you should check out his channel because he is quite good in my opinion.
Enjoy the return of the Musica Monday!!
Love,
Sara :)

Cheap Find 2

So, I've been searching for a good pair of walking boots for a while now and when I mentioned this to my friend today who had a pair, she offered up a pair that she had that didn't fit her. She had bought them off of Amazon and was willing to give them to me for $25. These boots are quite nice and comfortable! They will hopefully last me quite a while, so this is my new cheap find :) a nice pair of boots.

Have you guys found anything new over the past few months? I am a big fan of the boots!

Love,

Sara :)

Year of the Dresses

Hey guys, I know it's two posts in one day and I could probably wait to post this until tomorrow, but I don't want to get caught up in something else and forget tomorrow. Anyways, I entered a contest through one of my favorite online stores/places to buy clothing and accessories: Modcloth. I did have a post from earlier about some of their dresses (here), but this contest would ensure that I would add some more posts about my fashion, or at least once a month along with what I post otherwise. I know that I'm not exactly a fashionista in the regular sense, but I'd really appreciate a vote or two from people who do look at this blog (I love you all!). To vote for me, please just click here, and if you have a facebook you can vote (I think you might have to accept an app for facebook, but think about helping me? :P). You are all wonderful for reading my blog, and whether or not you vote I still hope that you will continue to read and will pass it on to others so that they can read it as well :3
Love,
Sara :)

Monsters: Myths and Movies

Yesterday was my first day of my interim (January term) class. The class is called Monsters: Myths and Movies (hence the title of today's post). For those of you who don't know, an interim or January term class is a class that lasts just the month of January, before second semester starts in February. These classes tend to be more intense and meet 4 or 5 days a week for at least 2 hours a day. In essence, it is the equivalent of taking a semester length class and shoving it into a month. I enjoy interim because I can concentrate on just one class instead of having to worry about multiple classes and subject matters all at once. This year I am taking an english class, Monsters: Myths and Movies, which our professor has introduced with two quotes:

    "What we call monsters can be experienced as sublime. They represent powers too vast for the normal forms of life to contain them....By a monster I mean so horrendous presence or apparition that explodes all of your standards for harmony, order, and ethical conduct." ~Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

    "Horror films function as nightmares for the individual viewer, as diagnostic eruptions for repressive societies, and as exorcistic or transcendent pagan rituals for supposedly post-pagan societies. They can be analyzed in all these ways because they represent a unique juncture of personal, social, and mythic structure." ~Bruce Kawin, "The Mummy's Pool"

In this class we will be reading six novels, three of them classics and three of them more "re-tellings" of these classics. We are starting out with Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, followed by the "re-telling" called The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing. We will then move on to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Rober Louis Stevenson, and the "re-telling" being Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin. The las pair we will be reading is Dracula by Bram Stoker, with Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. As we go through these I will be putting up some notes from class, hopefully better than I have been doing over the past semester... But as the title of the class says, we are also going to be looking at movies! We are gong to watch the 1931 movie "Frankenstein" as well as the 1994 movie "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein". For the second group we will watch the 1931 film "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and the 1980 film "Altered States". I will say that I almost wish that we were watching parts of the show "Jekyll" from BBC America, it looks freaky but kinda awesome! For our vampire fix, we will be watching the 1931 movie "Dracula" (Bela Lugosi has to be here somewhere!) as well as 1992's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (creative titles here, folks) and also because of the drastic change in recent years we will watch excerpts from the film "Twilight" as we look at how our view of vampires has changed.

That's all I will throw at you today from this class, look for more updates to follow! Happy Friday :D

Love,

Sara :)

Is Conditioner Hurting your Skin?

According to the dermatologist I see, it turns out that acne can actually in part be caused by conditioner. Allow me to explain. What conditioner does is coats your hair in a sort of oil-like lubricant that allows you to better comb through it. While this is nice for people with thick curly hair that tends to develop hard and unyielding knots (rats' nests, as my mother called them), it can actually plug the pores of your skin, causing breakouts. Adult acne is apparently quite common in people who had severe acne as a child and teenager. I am one such person. I have had acne since middle school and it has been a constant battle for me to get rid of it, even after using topical creams and drugs (tetracycline), I still have occasional breakouts. As much as I hate for this to sound like an advertisement, I guess it is going that way. This thing the dermatologist was slightly disappointed that it wasn't working and asked me about my showering habits. It had never occurred to me that what I was doing with my hair would affect my face, so I replied that I used shampoo and conditioner and body wash, then used the face wash that he had specified to clean off the shampoo and conditioner from my face. This is where he corrected me. He asked if I used the same towel to dry my face and my hair, I replied yes. He asked if I touched my hair and then touched my face at any point throughout the day, I replied yes. Then it dawned on me, he continued by explaining that even though I was washing my face correctly, whenever I touched my hair, which was coated in the conditioner to help with my knots and frizz, and then touched my face, I was unknowingly blocking some of the pores on my skin. He suggested that if i did need to use conditioner, because knots in hair do happen and conditioner does help, to only use a very minuscule amount and only in the area that would be needing it. He also suggested that I use less shampoo, since excess shampoo does not help your hair or face in general. He also recommended not to use the 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner since that would do the same thing (this also, I would imagine, removes the 3-in-1 shampoo, conditioner, and body wash).
I have taken in this advice and for the past week, since my appointment, I have not been using conditioner, except when absolutely necessary. My findings? *drumroll please* It actually works! Who would have thought that the professionals know what they are talking about! Just kidding, but I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that it actually worked. I would suggest this for anyone struggling with severe acne, but do talk to you dermatologist or family doctor before making any life changes based off of a blog. This seems to be working for me, so I wanted to share it with you in hopes that maybe it will also work for you!
Anyways, I have my first day of my interim class today (it's called Monsters: Myths & Movies) and I am super excited! I will update you all on it either tonight or tomorrow.
Happy Thursday! Yea....it's weird, my class is starting of Thursday, and ever better is that my prof will be in Boston for the weekend, leaving right after class today, so we don't have class tomorrow! Sweet right?! :P
Alright, later my dear friends :)
Love,
Sara :)

And....Back

And we are back at school. Well, I am at least. The last Winter/Holiday Break of my undergraduate career is over....that's a slap in the face. That means that I'm almost done and I really need to have fun this January term (interim/J-term) and upcoming semester (which starts in February). In essence, I'm back on campus, not quite unpacked fully yet, still have about half my clothing to unpack and about all of my food to unpack...progress? Anywho! Just wanted to say that I am still alive! :D And tomorrow marks the start of the last January term!!! I will update you tomorrow, when I am more awake and have a cappuccino or oatmeal (yes I still eat it) in my system!
I am also playing with the idea of thank you cards for some people who got me particularly memorable gifts, or who I think deserve one (for instance my parentals who have honestly gotten too few thank you notes and letters from me in the past!).
Also, it's time for me to start working out more regularly since I don't have finals to keep me from keeping in shape :P I have been quite lazy in the past two months or so since Thanksgiving, and I really could use some daily exercise in my routine. I'm hoping to get up to my 5K possibility again by then end of this month, or next month if it turns out this class is more work that I was prepared for.
That's just a quick update :) I hope that the new year has started out well for all of you! :D
Love,
Sara :)