Laughter, Costco and To-Do Lists

On Laughter:
I laughed so hard I cried last night: It was so great and I literally felt like my stomach was going to split open. I have been yelled at so many times this year for laughing too loudly, or in the library when others were trying to study, or too late at night in the hallway when people were trying to sleep (as hall staff, this probably wasn’t such a great thing…). More than a couple people have told me recently that they knew I was around because they recognized my laugh.

But when you laugh, you forget about everything else: everything is rosy for a few seconds. It’s weird, rare, and incredible: to laugh so hard you can’t keep back the tears and everything else just fades away for a bit. I am thankful for friends that know how silly I am, and can enjoy it all with me.
(A tidbit from my life: a Friday morning exchange between Rose and I: “I’m glad we’ve been on four stops, I almost choked to death (on cereal) and you just squirted gas on the ground…that was a successful search for a toothbrush.”)

On Costco:
Last Monday, I went to the societal gathering place we call Costco for the first time. It was a ridiculous experience. I spent no less than $252.37, but to be fair, I had estimated $400 for my heaping cart. It was a horrible idea to enter Costco's doors considering my packrat tendencies, my obsessive personality, my perpetual sense of hunger, and the fact that—let's be real—I’m cheap. While living on my own last summer and this summer, I had to spend a lot of money on food…so at least this time, I got lots of food for my money (or so they tell me). We’ll see how crazy everything gets with my 52 oatmeal packets, 10 chicken breasts, 36 juice boxes and 40 bags of popcorn: I’m still just one person. It was an adventure. Now its time for a snack…

On To-Do Lists:
I don’t like forgetting. I always have a million things swirling around in my head: lots of intentions, a lot of assignments and many miscellaneous things. My planner is always close by. While recently cleaning out my dorm to move out, I found 29 to-do lists. There were lots of things crossed out (victory!!), some that I forgot about, some that have been copied onto other lists since these versions, but still. Yes, it scares me a little too. But after all that, I thought about why I do it. I want to make the most out of my time at Furman—I don’t want to miss anything (too close to the Aerosmith song?) so I have to figure out when it’s all going to happen. My planner, my to-do lists and my sticky notes will be around for a while.


And that's that.

I Can't Believe It's That Time Again

I am so darn blessed. I've had another challenging, beautiful, adventure-filled, overinvolved year at Furman. There's still so much I still need to process from this past year that I'll get around to eventually--I'm halfway through my Furman career...and now I'm spending my first day at my incredible Greenvillean summer house, currently snuggled up with Mishka, the first cat I've ever had the opportunity to live with. I love it.

On Wednesday I start my May class (Social Evolution of Furman) with two of my favorite people--Rose and Biz, then we head to Pawley's Island for the weekend! Next week I am going to start my internship with Loaves and Fishes--I'm pumped. All the while I'll be babysitting up a storm, definitely the best job EVER.

All in all, I have no way of knowing what that this summer will bring, but I do know that I am so excited I can hardly stand it.

To do:
-Unpack and organize my room--make it feel like home
-Stock up on food and supplies at Costco
-Start back up on my training
-Perfect the summer bucket list
-Take a second to breathe and appreciate the awesomeness of everything

Now to get started on that list...