25 Years in the Future

When I was an undergraduate student, I served as the president of Central Campus and the name of our organization was Central Campus Residential Government (CCRG). Sadly, when I was elected, it was the last year for Central Campus, as the long range plan called for it to be replaced by a new recreation center.

One of the things I did with the CCRG executive board was put on different programs to help celebrate the 50 years Central Campus was around. Our most exciting project was creating a time capsule to be opened later by the students who use the fitness center. We worked on the time capsule for a few months, and when we were done, we gave it to Housing to hold onto until the Rec Center was finished.

Well, three years later, the Rec Center is up and functioning, and Housing decided to plan a ceremony installing the time capsule we created. I was invited to serve on the planning committee and we planned things from the invitation list, the location, the program, and the speakers. I was so excited to have some say about the ceremony that would put my project into the foundation of the Rec Center! But that's not all - the director of Housing asked me to be a speaker at the ceremony!

So, on April 6th, a bunch of people gathered to celebrate Central Campus for the last time and to install the time capsule.

Vice President of Student Affairs beginning the ceremony


The director of Housing introducing the project and ceremony

Mary, an alum of Central Campus, speaking of her memories

Speaking my part of the ceremony - introducing the parts of the capsule and giving my memories

The director inviting me and the current Association of Residence Halls president to the front to unveil the capsule

The director of the Rec Center promising me that she will pass on the legacy that CCRG started and will keep the time capsule safe until it is opened.

Posing with the Central Campus Time Capsule cover!

The cover close up

Ok, this may have been a bit picture heavy, but I wanted to show all of the exciting parts of the ceremony! It was such a precious moment and I am honored to have been apart of it!

Wait. Does sugar come from a bush?

My all time favorite event at Spring Valley would definitely have to be Sugar Bush. It's an event that they hold to show the sugaring process of making maple syrup out of sap. Did you know that maple syrup is made out of the sap that flows in trees? It is basically another reason why trees are awesome.

Since I was like... 14 I volunteered at the Sugar Bush festival. I started out mostly doing the puppet show for young children. I did this for like... 5 years! It's a cute little show that teaches kids about how trees are tapped for sap. I loved doing it, but after awhile, the thought of moving puppets around on a stage and memorizing the dialogue did not sound exactly appealing anymore. So, I graduated to the interpretation stations out by the cabin and food tents.

I fell in love with the boil down station and have done it for quite a few years. I did it again this year! Luckily, I was able to apply for travel and it was granted. So this year, I relived my station again!

The evaporator that the sap sits in

Basically, my favorite station involves putting the raw sap, straight from the tree, into an evaporator and boiling off about 75% of the water. Sap is primarily water, and in order to get the color and taste that we all know, it needs to be boiled off.


We do that at Spring Valley by using a wood burning stove with an evaporator on top, as seen here. That chamber in front in where the wood is put in to keep the fire going.

Part of the interpretation is to discuss the different grades of maple syrup. Aaaand, here is an awful picture of me showing the different grades. Yikes!


Throughout the weekend, we had tons of visitors (I think upwards of 1500 people) come and learn. Here is me telling this little girl what I was doing!

I know, I know, another awful picture. I'm no good good at candid shots :)

So, all and all, it was a pretty awesome weekend! I love Sugar Bush and can't wait for it next year!!!!

Nature and Me = :)

Over my spring break I decided I needed a few healthy doses of nature to make up for how much I was missing by my job. First place I went - Spring Valley of course! It was a warmer day, so I didn't mind trekking around. The week was pretty chilly and rainy.

Salt Creek

I went to my favorite spot - Salt Creek first. It was definitely flowing as the snow was melting steadily. For some reason, I just love sitting on the bridge watching the water flow and the small creatures running around. :)

Me in the creek

Yes, I know how silly this picture is. But I saw a bottle in the creek and wanted to pick it up. So, I set my autotimer and was going to pose with to prove my awesomeness. Well, I underestimated how long 10 seconds is, as well as how soupy the creek bank was. So, my camera has about 10 tries of me trying to get it out, as well as me having fun with the autotimer in general. Haha...

Pond

I went from the creek to the cabin and took a look at the frozen pond. It was oddly peaceful sitting on the bench. There was a little breeze, but other than that, it was completely silent. A very rare moment in this spot!

Hay field

I wandered over to the farm and took the back paths to see what was new back there. This view is the back of the hayfield. On my camera lens, it looked like that light colored grass was smoke. I thought it was sooo cool!

Horse and Engel

I ended up walking all the way to my car by the time I realized that I never to got to see the livestock. I went back to the farm and caught Engel and one of the draft horses outside. I'm horrible and have no idea which horse this is! It's either Price or Duke. Ooops! I had fun watching them and sitting on the wagon seat.

Later on during my spring break week, I decided to finally go and check out the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I have never visited the gardens, and that felt silly, especially given my major, my passion, and that I wanted to apply to work there. I finally decided to go and at least see what the major attractions were, so I could sound semi knowledgeable if I got past the application stage.

I loved the saying above the door in the visitor center. Everyone here was SO friendly! And of course, there was a sweeeeet gift shop in here ;-)



This is what I saw as soon as I walked outside of the visitor center. It took my breath away and it was still technically winter! The blues were so blue and the yellow in the tree was just as beautiful. I knew from the minute I left the center that I could love working there.


I also wandered over to a huge set of greenhouses that were connected. I learned that there were different types of plants/environments in each greenhouse. I LOVE working in greenhouses, especially show/educational greenhouses. I didn't want to leave! It reminded me of working in the greenhouses during my undergrad!


This little guy is a young ginkgo tree. I do what I can to subliminally hint to my dad that we should plant one in his backyard. :) I love this tree!



Well this sure was enough pictures huh? I'll keep the pictures and/or nature to a minimum has I post in the next few weeks. Thanks for suffering through it. :)

I like to slam my fingers in doors

I just got back from a week off of work - it was ISU's spring break. It was a pretty amazing week! i got to relax, hang out with my parents, see Stephanie, and go to Spring Valley and the Botanic Gardens. It was a perfect break from all the ISU craziness.

But Amy, why didn't you blog AT ALL?

Oh, that would have a pretty simple explanation..... I slammed my finger into a door!

Haha, ok.... I will explain. I was helping close Hamilton Whitten because a co-worker was feeling under the weather. Closing a building includes checking every room to be sure the trash is removed, windows are closed, blinds are open, and everything is unplugged. The RAs do a majority of this, but professional staff needs to go through and recheck everything... specifically sign each window.

I decided to check Hamilton and was given 3 RAs. What cracked me up is all the boy RAs went with me and all the girl RAs went with the other helper, which happened to be a man. It's ok, they are very fun RAs! We started on the 10th floor and started doing our thing....

... 1 RA would unlock the doors
... 1 RA would follow me (to make sure I dont steal anything) and do a final check
... 1 RA would follow us and relock the doors

We had a great system going, and we were zipping through it. They are hilarious to listen to and they decided to play their own music, which was entertaining to watch as they danced around and sang. When we got down to the second floor, we got an text saying the building service workers suspected a cat living on the second floor. We decided to be extra thorough to see if we could smell or find any evidence. The boys started to spring ahead of me, checking the rooms. As I was done with my check, I would pull the door shut behind me so the locking RA knew I was done.

Well.... for whatever reason I was at one room and as I was pulling the door shut, I heard the boys laughing about something. I turned around the corner and simply did not pull my hand out fast enough! Plus... the door was randomly lighter than the rest of the doors!

I was INSTANTLY in indescribable pain. I felt my eyes bulge out of my head. Now, I've jammed my finger in a door before, but this was different. As I looked down at my finger, blood was seeping out around my nail. I wanted to fall to the floor in pain, but we were almost done and I didn't want to over react to something so dumb.

As I started to go into the next room, I could feel my finger swelling and throbbing. It didn't take long for the boys to notice something was wrong. I showed them what I did and got a unanimous "ahhh that looks like it hurts!"

The blue under my fingernail formed instantly. As we finished the rest of the building, I was struggling to hold back tears. I went to my apartment and wrapped my finger because touching my nail was incredibly painful. I packed up my car and was determined to still get home. As I drove, I had to keep my hand up on the passenger seat headrest to keep the throbbing under control.

I came home and showed my parents what I did. Of course, they started to laugh before anything... Amy slammed her finger into a door and it's semi-serious? Of course! After my 2 hour drive and packing and unpacking, it was feeling and getting worse.


I unwrapped my finger and noticed how much bruising developed on my ride home. I could barely bend or straighten my finger! Owie! The pain kept getting worse, and I honestly thought I was going to throw up after trying to shower with it. :(

The next morning, I was in just as much pain, if not more. My dad gently suggested going to the ER to be sure there wasn't a minor fracture anywhere. I agreed, maybe I would get an anti-inflammatory to help the unbearable pain under my finger nail!

Mom went with me to get her own situation checked out, and we split up. I was cracking up almost the whole time because it was a family trip to the ER on my first day home. Before long, my x-rays came back negative and the doctor told me (in not so many words), "Well, I can't do anything for you, this is just going to really hurt for a week or two."


She gave me this sexy, new brace and a pain pill prescription and wished me luck. Good news - it wasn't broken! But boy that pain under my nail is killer. Moral of the story, typing is pretty difficult to do over my break! What a break, huh? :) Luckily, things are getting better and the pain is not as difficult!

I'll put up some pictures soon of the rest of my break!!

Square

I haven't posted in a bit... but I can't think of anything to post about that isn't really wordy like my last post... and I can sort of tell I'm boring the few readers I do have. Hmm...

The only thing I can think of sharing is a few pictures of the square vase I've been using to make arrangements the past week or so. When I first got home from surgery, Mike, Adam, and Nicole gave me this really pretty arrangement.

It had gorgeous carnations and roses and orange and everything ! I absolutely loved it. It lasted for quite a long time, too. Once some of the flowers started to fade away, I decided to combine this arrangement with the one from my parents and grandparents. I ended up with something like that.

This is a bad angle and after I took the picture, I fixed the baby's breath so it wasn't sticking out so far. I had fun with the colors and working with flowers again! This arrangement seriously lasted another week and a half! This is ANOTHER reason that I LOVE carnations... they last so long and I just love looking at them. They are soooo pretty to me! I can't get over it. I don't like roses... at all. A few here and there are nice... but they aren't pretty to me, and what bugs me the most is how quickly they fade. I shouldn't hold that against the flower... but I do. :P



Once everything in that arrangement faded, I went out and bought a random bouquet of flowers from Jewel. I was loving the color and... they were really cheap. Haha... so I arranged them in the square vase. I think it looks fun! Don't worry, the random spiky green filler isn't there anymore... I thought it looked kinda dumb after I took the picture.

So moral of the story.... I am totally at a loss of things to talk about, and I love my new square vase!

Got a few things on my mind...

Recently (or since the new year), I have had SO much on my mind. Some days, I come home from work and just worry about things. To the point where I get upset! (Me, upset? Nahh)

What am I worried about right now? Ok, I'll start with one of the random ones. I feel very out of shape and unhealthy. Since I had surgery on my foot, I was given strict instructions to watch out for my physical activity for 9 months to a year. I thought that would be easy to do, but it turns out it was harder than I thought. 9 months hit in January so I'm hoping I can get back up to my normal activity level. I'd love to lose a few pounds and feel more energetic overall. Right now, by the time I get home from work, I HAVE to nap because I am so exhausted. That is not how I want to live my life!

Speaking of work... That's another thing I've got on my mind. I know for a fact I won't be staying here at ISU in the Housing Department for long. I am not happy here and I know that this is not the career path for me, like I once thought it was. So now what? Where do I go from here? Should I start looking for a new job now? Or should I go back to school? I am very stressed about finding a place for graduate school.

Graduate school. That was a good lead in. Do I want to go back to school? I can be honest with you all and say that I don't really want to go back to school. By the time I got to my senior year of college, I was done with the books and standard tests. I wanted to get out in the world and experience things rather than read about them. But now I wonder... is continuing my education the best thing for my career and future? Should I find a way to dig in and go back to school? Where in the heck am I going to go?

Another factor in this decision is the money. I am blessed by the generosity of my parents who decided to pay for both my 4 years of school as well as Doug's. So I am in great shape in the sense that I don't have 4 years of college student loans. But the cost of graduate school does worry me. I know, I know, there are ways to get assistance... Graduate Assistantships and what not. But I worry about my current experience with a job that is similar to an assistantship and balancing school.

Speaking of paying for it... the last thing on my mind is money. MONEY. Oh my gosh this is on my mind just about 24/7. When unexpected expenses come up (my car battery dieing, dropping my laptop, etc) I can take care of it, but I worry about all of things I am trying to save for... all of the dang time! I feel like my paychecks just aren't enough... and I can't even describe how worried I was around tax time. I want to pay for so much.... Graduate school? Buying my own car? An apartment?

Apartments! A place to live? Not only this summer, but beyond... where am I going? Should I move back in with my parents? Boy that'll be a tough adjustment after this past year of living on my own. But there's no way I cant afford my own place with the money I'm making now, let alone without a confirmed job this summer.... and most likely without a roommate. Where do I even look for apartments? Is there like a website? How do I know if the rates are good?

Whew. Well, you definitely got the full list of current concerns. It just keeps going! The end of February is approaching and I can't stop thinking about the immediate future. Oh boy! Well, it does feel good to have it all written down... it's just time to make some things happen!

New Years Resolutions

Just like I did last year, I wanted to make some resolutions and write them down. Now, as we know, I didn't do such a great job keeping to my resolutions last year as the summer started. That's not cool! So I made another list for this year and hope to stick to these and better myself!

1. Get into shape - I had surgery on my foot back in May of last year. Woohoo! Except as a part of my recovery, I had to avoid using it until January. I understood why I had to be careful, but that also greatly reduced the amount of activity I could do. I pushed myself to the limit right after surgery until Stephanie's wedding so I would be in shape for that, but since then I have limited activity so I didn't reverse the surgery. Now, I am feeling quite out of shape and unhappy with how I feel. I'd like to get back into shape and feeling better! Losing a few pounds wouldn't hurt, either! And of course the appendectomy pushes things back a bit!
   
   
2. Continue to work on not being late - I am doing a little bit better about being on time. As a matter of fact, the RAs today thanked me for being on-time to check-in since other pro-staff typically aren't. That made me feel better :) But overall, I'd love to stop stressing myself (and others) out because I'm late!
   
   
3. Find more time to do things I love - Well, this also means.... find more things to do! I think this is mainly applying to living in Normal. I spend so much time working, coming home, and working from home. Example: it's the weekend and I brought home time cards to fill out.

Let's hope these three stick for the year... I'd love to feel better about all 3! Do you have anything you're working this year?


**Disclaimer. This post was actually written in January, but a few things prevented it from being published.