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  The final blog post!  This blog has taught me that I can actually keep up with a blog; I just need the motivation to do so (a.k.a.  a grade).  In the past, I’ve tried to start a blog a couple of times.  Once for my sorority and once when I went abroad to South Africa.  Looking back, I’m bummed that I didn’t do so for my study abroad because I actually had a lot more to write about then.  Hopefully these blogs helped my writing.  The GRE indicated that writing was my strongest aspect between the three components and maybe I should be giving the credit to our class blogs for that aspect.  I wish everyone the best of luck in closing out the semester and with the rest of your career pathway! I know that I am certainly looking forward to getting more involved in the speech sciences areas. 

Today I am supposed to go Christmas tree shopping at one of the local farms with a friend.  She wants to bring a fresh one home to her family, but looking at the weather outside, I’m not sure if we’re going to make it.  I was so excited because I’ve never done the ‘pick your tree and cut it down’ experience.  My family has always had an artificial tree.  Hopefully we will still brave the rain and venture out to find her family a tree!  Rain is a mess, but a little snow would make Christmas tree shopping so picturesque!

Today has been one of the most relaxing and fun Monday’s I’ve seen in a while!  Two of my classes were cancelled leaving me with just one to attend and three extra hours of sleep.  After I get off I work, I’m finally going to see Catching Fire.  All I’ve heard over the past few days is people raving about how awesome it is.  I couldn’t make it to the premier because of an assignment, but finally today is the day! To close the day, I’m going to a birthday dinner for my grand-little.  She’s 19 today (still so young!).  The best part about ending this Monday is that I get to sleep in tomorrow as well!  Thank you Dr. Keegan for canceling Neuroanatomy!

I am down to just 5 more 8 am classes left for this semester!  Whoo hoo!! Although, I do have an 8 am next semester, but I will gladly take that for just 2 days a week versus the usual 5 days a week.  All in all, getting up that early hasn’t been so bad.  I live right off of campus so I don’t have to worry about getting up extra early to catch a bus.  I am definitely looking forward to a new semester, that’s hopefully less stressful, and a little extra sleep!  I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! 

I have been enjoying the extra Audiology labs so much.  It's a bummer that undergrads don't actually get credit for going, but it is still worth the hands on experience.  Today, I convinced one of my sorority sisters to come in.  She had a ruptured ear drum when she was younger so we were hoping to still see some effects from that.  Fortunately, but unfortunately, there wasn't a puncture, but she did have a small amount of tympanosclerosis left from childhood ear infections on one ear.  I'm enjoying theses labs so much that I just told my parents that I want an otoscope for Christmas.  I'm still on the speech path track, but audiology is super cool!

Today at church we had a packing party for Operation Christmas Child.  We pack over 175 boxes which is about three times as many members that attend that church!  I shoved 100 of the boxes in my car today to haul them up to the packing center and will have to get the rest next week.  In December I'm taking my youth kids to the packing center where they'll get to process the shoe boxes.  We did this last year and had a blast!  Everything is set up in an assembly line formation and is tough work, especially being on your feet for 4 hours, but it's so worth it.  I can't wait to go again this year!

Last night I went to see Mipso perform at Legends.  If you haven't heard of them, I'd classify their music is folk with a touch of bluegrass.  They are sort of in the same genre as Mumford and Sons.  It was my first time seeing them and I thought they were great, but the size of the crowd would suggest otherwise.  There couldn't have been more than 100 people there and Legends didn't even have them on the main stage.  They set up a smaller stage in the left hand corner.  The turnout really surprised me because their music was so Boone appropriate.  I reckon they just haven't made a name for themselves yet, but if they come back through town soon I highly recommend checking them out!

So recently I have been trying to wait until the absolute last minute to grocery shopping.  Part of the reason is just that I see grocery shopping as such a chore and I’m too lazy.  My other reasoning is that I want to cut down on how much food I waste.  Our country is terrible about wasting food and there are so many people in just Boone who go without food.  I’m getting to the point where I have to be a little creative with my meals.  For example, today part of my lunch is a PB&J on a tortilla.  It’s almost like an uncrustable right?

Tonight my ASL II class went out to dinner with some people from the Deaf community.  We went to this place called Family Billiards in Foscoe.  It's a relaxed burger joint where you can shoot pool and hang out.  When our class has a silent lunch or dinner, we completely turn off our voices and do our best to sign everything.  This way, we're on the same playing field, other than being able to hear, as the deaf people who come out.  It was a great time, but I could tell that the server was getting really frustrated by the language barrier.  I don't blame her either; it can be difficult to communicate if you have no signing experience.  However, I wasn't too impressed by her shouting.  1.  We can hear you.  2. No matter how loud you shout, the deaf people will not hear you.  Bless her heart. 

Being on a college budget means eating pretty cheap for the most part, but that doesn't mean that you can't be creative every once in while!  This weekend one of my friends invited me over to make grilled cheeses so I figured why not, my fridge was bare anyways.  Instead of the traditional bread and cheese ingredients, I found she had something a little more interesting planned.  Our grilled cheeses consisted of provolone cheese, a fried egg, tomato (I substituted a little ketchup because I'm not a tomato person), and wait for it....onion pepper and chive and onion cream cheese.  It was incredibly delicious, despite the abnormal combination.  I have a feeling that creative grilled cheeses may be getting me through until turkey day!

My brain feels like mush already and it's only Tuesday.  There's still more hurdles to jump for this week and I don't even know if I cleared the first one.  I blame that neuroanatomy test.  I studied like crazy for that sucker and still felt like I was decoding a foreign language.  There are just so many connections and functions and dysfunctions!  Who could possible keep them all straight?!  Oh well, on to the next task...our literature review.  I actually weirdly enjoy writing, especially when it's on a topic that I'm interested in.  Unfortunately, I've had to neglect this paper for other assignments so hopefully jumping back into it won't take too much refreshing.  Best of luck to everyone else this week! 

This weekend I went to one of my sorority sister's wedding.  We actually played volleyball together in high school as well.  Though it was a long drive home (all the way to the East coast), it was nice to have an excuse to go home for a couple of days.  The wedding was beautiful too! Sarah and Brian have been together since they were in seventh grade!  Crazy right?!  The rumor is that she through a softball at his head and they've been in love ever since.  Too cute! In addition to the wedding, it was also really great to see a bunch of my other sisters.  A bunch of them have graduated and moved all over because of jobs so it was almost like a little reunion this weekend too. 

I've been in communication with the school for the deaf in Morganton for a few weeks trying to set up times where I can consistently volunteer.  I really want to get more involved in the Deaf community and improve my ASL because I want to one day work with deaf children on their speech and language.  I finally completed all of the paperwork and was asked to come down and meet with some of the teachers.  I was thinking that it would be kind of like an orientation meeting with other volunteers, but it was only me and the meeting had more of an interview vibe to it.  Luckily there was a hearing teacher who interpreted for me and the deaf teachers.  My ASL II knowledge is pathetic compared to their fluent ASL.  Walking out my stomach felt like it was twisted in knots, but I know that feeling means that I'm in the right place because I'm out of my comfort zone.  Here's to learning new things from new experiences....even if I look like a fool while I'm trying to get the hang of sign language and Deaf culture.