THANKSGIVING BREAK!!

Its finally here!!! I can’t wait to go get back and eat everything in the house, sit on the couch all day, and just relax for a week.  I have no idea what or where my family is going for thanksgiving but Im sure we will have a good time no matter where we go.  I’m going to keep this one short because I’m leaving soon!! Have a great thanksgiving everybody.

 

Wanted

A lost keyring with a generous amount of keys in all shapes and sizes.  It has three keychains, one from New York, Japan, and Paris. (All friends gifts of the cool places they went, unfortunately not where I’ve actually been.)

Discovered missing this morning.  Last remembered seen in my hands…I think…maybe.  Room has been torn apart.

If found please return to Pittman 121.  I want to be able to get home!

 

Thanksgiving

Oh how I am looking forward to this break soo so much.  It probably won’t last as long as I want but it will still be nice to relax and enjoy good company.  Not to mention the yummy food.  I am going to gain like 20 pounds on Thursday, yay.  Wear your stretchy pants people!!  Have an awesome Thanksgiving all!!

 

Thanksgiving Week!!

It is officially Thanksgiving week! YEAH! I was looking at our school calendar hanging in my section in the 75th day of school mark was Friday or Saturday I forget which.  I can’t believe that 75 days has already past.  It feels like last week when we were starting school and now it’s already Thanksgiving!! I had all my tests/presentations last week so this week is going to be really nice!! And I get a break from gymnastics which is needed so hopefully my wrist and shins can heal! I’m really excited to be going home in 2 days!! I miss my family and friends!! I saw Twilight over the weekend with some friends it was amazing!! I loved it! I’ll probably go see it again over break! I am finally caught up with blogs!! So hopefully from now on I can stay on track! Ok well I’m going to bed, probably the earliest I’ve gone to bed in a long time.  Goodnight! Happy Thanksgiving Week!!

 

Thxgiving Break!

Two more days! Although I only get to go home for one full day because of basketball I’m very excited! We are celebrating at my grandpa’s house. All of my cousins go. Its pretty hectic but I love seeing my family and eating the delicious food. Vikes won again today! Hopefully they can do something when it comes to playoff. Well I need some sleep, see you all in class tomorrow.

 

Almost Thanksgiving!!!

I am so incredibly excited for turkey break!! I think we are all ready for some time off. This weekend was pretty uneventful for me. I had 3 tests and a presentation this past week, so I don’t have much homework… hopefully this trend will continue over break haha. The Vikings played a great game and totally destroyed Seattle! I believe we are only trailing New Orleans for the best record . I can’t WAIT to see all of my friends over break!! This excitement is going to make it extremely hard to focus for the next few days… hopefully the profs will take it easy on us haha. See you all tomorrow.

 

Why I Love to Read (Thanks, Mom)

I think I mentioned to you all that I missed the Nobel Conference this year because I went to visit my 95-year-old mother who was in the hospital. She was able to leave the hospital but was getting hospice care at home and on Friday she passed away.  I feel a mixture of sadness and gratitude that she doesn’t have to linger, since she wasn’t going to get better and she was ready to go. Apparently the hospice workers sensed there was still something she needed, though she didn’t appear very aware of her surroundings. My sister suggested she might be concerned about her grandchildren living in Kentucky whom she hadn’t seen since the summer. They arranged a one-sided conference call so they could talk to her and about an hour after that she died. I imagine hospice workers grow sensitive to things like that – what a lot of courage and kindness that job must take.

I mention this for a couple of reasons, one purely practical. I’m not sure when we’re going to gather for her memorial service, but December 11th was mentioned. That was going to be a day for workshopping your final papers (that is, having a chance to get peer review and talk through any issues you’re encountering). I think we’ll still be able to find a way to facilitate that, even if I’m on my way to Wisconsin.

The other is just that I was thinking about how much my mother led me to love books – and mysteries in particular. When I think of her, I picture her sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and a book, either Jane Austen (whose novels she read over and over) or a mystery from the library.

She grew up in a working class family, the oldest of nine children, and was only sixteen when her father died. She had to quit high school and get a job.She never finished her formal education, but she was the person everyone in the family turned to when we wondered when a historical event happened or what a Latin phrase meant. Even my father considered her the best-educated person in the house, and he was a college professor. She soaked up knowledge from the books she read, and she read voraciously. And though a lot of what she read was fiction, it had a lot of information in it about the world. She was always up for a trip, whether in real life or through books.

And it was clear that books were important. I remember the day when I was four years old and our set of the World Book Encyclopedia was delivered in a big brown carton. It was so exciting to unpack those books! I didn’t know how to read yet, but luckily there were lots of color pictures. Sometimes (though we were sure she knew everything there was to know) when we asked a question, she’d say “look it up!” because being able to find out for ourselves was important, too.

I thought I’d share a YouTube clip that I just bumped into that made me smile. The sound quality isn’t too good but the images are cool and it conveys some of that idea that books are magical.

 

 

 

November 22… Hmong New Year!!!

In honor of the Coroner’s Lunch, I just wanted to mention that today (November 22) is Hmong New Year! When I saw this I thought of our reading. Enjoy your day everyone! (Maybe some celebrations are  in order?!?)

 

Sick..Again…

Well as you all probably know, I wasn’t at class today.  I woke up this morning and felt like absolute death haha.  I don’t know what it was but I am already starting to feel better after sleeping ALL day.  My roommate brought me some soup as well so I think that helped as well.  I am going to the guys hockey game tonight where they play Bethel, it should be a pretty good game.  Maybe Ill see a couple of you there.  O and I almost forgot, I have to do another one of these because I didn’t do one last week.  Awesome, so Ill be back either later on in the night or tomorrow.  Happy blogging.

 

Package of Warmth

Frost covered the trees and the wind whistled through their skeleton branches. As the vibrant colors of fall faded into winter’s gray we pulled on our hats, mittens, and warm, button up coats to take a trip down to the city of lights. Denver’s streets sparkled with golden lights, bright shop windows, and busy streets. The evening was filled with fun and laughter. Running through 16^th Street, grabbing coffee, looking at shop windows, taking pictures… We counted the buffalo statues (11 of them), and took pictures of the man playing chess. We posed in front of buildings, jumped down stairs, and spun through doors. The night steadily grew colder and we were happy to be driving home with the heated seats on. Near our car though was a man lying up against a wall, newspapers surrounded him to provide some form of insulation. His breath came slowly in and out, hanging before his face like fog on an early morning. He blended into the wall and was easily missed if you were not looking – gray, gray as the sky and its surroundings. We counted many of these dark, shivering figures on the way home. It was quiet.

Throughout the following week though, it was not quiet. No, sewing machines whirred and scissors cut yards and yards of rich, red fleece. By the end of the week we had made 25 thick red blankets, all folded and tied with ribbon. Late that night we went back downtown, and next to each of the gray, sleeping figures we placed a red package of warmth.

May this upcoming week bless you with an abundance of things to be thankful for.    

 

16th street